Bangkok - Lao Lao Shanghai

Dear Fork, 

What a great day to reunite as a team and devour some amazing feast. Lao-Lao Shanghai, a Chinese restaurant located on the first floor of the Jas Ramintra (community mall). This place is spacious and have a VIP room with a Lazy Susan table perfectly for family dining. 

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The restaurant is decorated more towards a modern Chinese style with a touch of traditional Chinese art, visibly on the pots. Their beautiful pots with cloisonne enamel (Jing Tai Lan) are pure beauty. They use them as the decor as a part of the restaurant. We were really hype to try the hot pot using this Jing Tai Lan pot. It never hurts to eat from a fancy pot, don't you think so?! 

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The restaurant is newly opened and they are famous for their hot pot, but after trying out so many entrée dishes today, they were just as splendid. We started off with a few appetizer plates. Deep-fried Minced Tofu Lao Lao Style (THB 180), wow, to have begin the meal with this dish, I did expect a lot for other coming up dishes, because this was delicious! Who knew, 'just a fried tofu' dish could make me satisfy that much for a person who's not a fan for tofu like me. It's definitely not your typical deep fried tofu. It's flavorful with the crispiness on the skin. Served with lotus root chips, sweet soy sauce and plum sauce. Highly recommended.

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What's Chinese lunch without some dim sum right? This is Lao Lao Dim Sum 14 pcs. (THB 390) It comes with 8 different types on dimsum
- Prawn shumai
- Scallop shumai
- Shiitake stuffed with prawn
- Seaweed prawn
- Teochew dumpling
- Shrimp Dumpling (Ha Gow)
- BBQ Pork Bun
- Salted egg yolk custard bun

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My favorites were the seaweed shrimp dim sum and salted egg yolk custard. Useful note: you can also order them individually and they serve two pieces per order.

Look at that #saltedeggyolkporn !!! Salted Egg Yolk Custard Bun

Look at that #saltedeggyolkporn !!! Salted Egg Yolk Custard Bun

The next dish we had was the Slow-cooked Kurobuta Belly (THB 380). This pork belly just melted in my mouth, so tender. Food with gold flake gets me all the time. LOL

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A few more dishes arrived and the highlights were Sichuan Stir-fried Tofu (THB 180)Deep-fried Sea Bass with Spicy Salt and Sichuan Pepper (which we also got the shrimp version of it). They were great with rice. 

Sichuan Stir-fried tofu

Sichuan Stir-fried tofu

Deep-fried Sea Bass Sichuan Mala Style

Deep-fried Sea Bass Sichuan Mala Style

A perfect Chinese feast!

A perfect Chinese feast!

AND...comes the most exciting part. HOT POT TIME!!! This is the part where we anticipated for. We opted for Premium Beef Stew Hot Pot (THB 650), which comes with Paleron beef (on left), a set of mixed vegetables. The broth itself has super tender braised beef and beef shank. The soup is very aromatic and flavorful. The dipping sauces are sweet sauce and spicy sauce.

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The marbling of the beef was just perfect. We also ordered the regular thinly sliced beef to try and it was great as well. The dishes you can order on the side are something like beef tendon, stewed pork and strip loin  etc. SO GOOD! 

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NEXT: Desserts time! My favorites were the Mini Custard Mooncake (THB 70/pc.), house-made salted egg yolk custard tasted heavenly.  Black Sesame in Ginger Syrup (THB 50) is one of my favorite desserts and Lao-Lao house-made version is really good. 

Mini Custard Mooncake (THB 70/pc.)

Mini Custard Mooncake (THB 70/pc.)

Black Sesame Dumpling in Ginger Syrup (THB 50)

Black Sesame Dumpling in Ginger Syrup (THB 50)

Taro with Ginkgo (THB 65)

Taro with Ginkgo (THB 65)

To sum it all up, this place was such a great find, I'm glad I stumbled upon it. The flavors were all wonderful and every plates were beautifully executed. I'd recommend to go with 2 or more people so you get to try all these yummy dishes. It's always good to have a little bit of everything, right?

Love,

Spoon

Lao Lao Shanghai
Address: The Jas Ramintra - Ladplakao Rd. Bangkok, Thailand 10220
Tel: 02-116-8910
Business Hours: MON - SUN 11AM - 10PM
Parking - YES
Price - ฿฿฿

San Francisco: Kusakabe

9/24/2015

Dear Fork,

My food experience today was magnificent, yet it was a day without you. Thus, it was an incredible day that I would love to share with you. I went to KUSAKABE, a year old Japanese restaurant in San Francisco with its honor holding a one-star Michelin. The owner/chef, Mitsunori Kasukabe has years of experiences from Kyoto, Japan to Nobu New York and Miami, to Sushi Ran. With his professional creativity, he has received many awards from all over including US Sushi Technical Champion.

Nori-san doing what he does best, creating an excellent quality food for us.

Nori-san doing what he does best, creating an excellent quality food for us.

A glass of champagne to start off my meal. 

A glass of champagne to start off my meal. 

I went in at 5pm for the first round of omakase (Chef's choice). Kusakabe offers sushi in a Kaiseki style menu, which is a multi-course menu $95, including the interesting Omakase selections of the following: 

  • Welcoming Tea - Konbu cha, kelp tea which which give the salty taste, to clean your palate. Interesting!
  • Sushi Prelude - Zuke Chutoro (lightly seared bluefin medium fatty tuna cured in soy sauce, the first delicious bite. Plus, two kinds of seasonal sushi of the day.
Zuke Chutoro, melt in your mouth. 

Zuke Chutoro, melt in your mouth. 

Hirame - Konbu cured Halibut.

Hirame - Konbu cured Halibut.

Bonito

Bonito

  • Sashimi - Chef's sashimi nestled in shaved ice with fresh wasabi & yuzu onion sauce. It was Tasmanian ocean trout and Hotate (scallop) today. So fresh and cold, amazing!
Tasmanian Ocean Trout and Scallop served on ice. SO FRESH!

Tasmanian Ocean Trout and Scallop served on ice. SO FRESH!

  • Soup - Suppon umami soup with Domyo-ji Manjyu (rice cake). Suppon = Soft shell turtle. It was my first time having turtle..woah! I'm normally not a soup person, but this Suppon Soup was so tasty. Flavorful soup with rice cake topped with flakes and goji berry. 
Suppon Umami Soup with Domyo-ji Manjyu.

Suppon Umami Soup with Domyo-ji Manjyu.

  • Hassun - Chef's assorted Les petit plats, four small bites of goodness! This course includes Young Sardine, Egg omelette, Washington oyster with French Daurenki Caviar, Toro topped with seaweed and pine nuts, and Eggplant Spring roll. My favorites were the oyster and toro... YUMMY!
Oyster + Caviar, Toro and spring rolls. DELICIOUSNESS.

Oyster + Caviar, Toro and spring rolls. DELICIOUSNESS.

One after another, I just couldn't get enough of these heavenly delicious bites! NEXT:

  • Warm Dish - Crispy Chi-Ayu with Italian summer truffle & bamboo charcoal miso. This plate was really interesting. The black colored bamboo charcoal miso was light yet perfectly flavored, along with sweetness and crispiness of the baby Ayu, which you can eat everything from head to tail. It served with Shishito pepper, watermelon, mini lime and the marvelous pieces of truffle.
Crispy Chi-Ayu with truffle and bamboo charcoal miso. #yum

Crispy Chi-Ayu with truffle and bamboo charcoal miso. #yum

How about some more sushi! I loved omakase so much because it's a never ending meal. I wouldn't mind doing this everyday. :p #sushilover

  • Sushi Chic - Three kinds of seasonal sushi of the day. Chefs at Kusakabe are so talented, every sushi were created professionally, giving such an impeccable taste.
Shimaaji - Stripe jack

Shimaaji - Stripe jack

Ayu 

Ayu 

Copper River King Salmon

Copper River King Salmon

 

 

Here comes the most exciting part, the finale, where you get to choose! Oh, let me tell you it's harder than you think...

  • Sushi Finale - Toro (blufin fatty tuna) or Grade A5 Miyazaki Wagyu beef... Hey, no pressure but... YOU MUST MUST MUST GET THEM BOTH! They were extremely worth getting and oh so incredible that it's hard to describe in words. It's $12 extra if you choose to get both. These two pieces were the best. The true melt-in-your-mouth feeling was brilliant.

Chef Shinsuke-san, blow-torching our A5 Wagyu.

Chef Shinsuke-san, blow-torching our A5 Wagyu.

Beautiful toro (bluefin fatty tuna), melt my heart. #meltinmymouth + #meltinmyheart

Beautiful toro (bluefin fatty tuna), melt my heart. #meltinmymouth + #meltinmyheart

Look at this beauty! A5 Miyazaki Wagyu strip loin  beef, the best of the best.

Look at this beauty! A5 Miyazaki Wagyu strip loin  beef, the best of the best.

Aside of the omakase, I had to get something a little extra AKA my favorite, to end our amazingly perfect sushi night. Bafun Uni - It is Hokkaido short spine sea urchin, soft, sweet and also melt-in-my-mouth! :D

Bafun uni (Hokkaido uni)

Bafun uni (Hokkaido uni)

Fresh corn and white miso ice cream parfait.

Fresh corn and white miso ice cream parfait.

 

Ended our night with an amazing dessert for my birthday with this cute Fresh corn and white miso ice cream parfait. Must try! It's Chef Shinsuke-san's recommendation. It was very refreshing. Lightly sweet corn/white miso ice cream topped with cornflakes and fruits. nom.

Thank you for a memorable night, Kusakabe. See you again very soon!

Fork, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. Till next time...

Love, 
Spoon


Tips:

  • Reservation is needed at least 1-2 week in advance (in case you are very lucky!). Weekends reservation are booked up for weeks ahead.
  • Dress Code: Business Casual
  • Use your hand to eat sushi, trust me. :)
  • It takes roughly about 1hr 30m - 2h 30m, so plan accordingly.
  • Last seating is at 8.30pm
  • You will love it. :D Just saying.

KUSAKABE: Opens MON-SAT 5pm-10pm | 584 Washington St. San Francisco, CA 94111

Kusakabe Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato
Source: http://kusakabe-sf.com