UniCorns and Bisteks

I had fun with tonight’s menu. It’s a little ambitious for a Friday night service but making dumplings isn’t that hard is it? . . . is it? Anyways, hopefully it’ll put me in a zen state after a long week of nine-to-fiving. There’s also the added motivation that I have family coming to dinner tonight so I’ll have to …

Esque Successes

photo courtesy of Yvonne at Design SHINDIG We’ve finally hit a little bit of a lull in our booking schedule (thank you sweet Jeebus!) so you’ll probably be seeing more of these post dinner posts coming you’re way (I know, promises promises). I have a few sets of photos waiting in the wings to be posted but I wanted to …

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Make your own gosh darn longanisa!

But that’s just the riff. Make your own jazz. Seems somehow incomplete right? That’s the beauty of it. It’s the perfect chance to make it yours. Here are a few notes to help you along the way. 1/2 kg is about 1 lb (which makes 8-10 links). Salt peter is what turns the longanisa that familiar reddish color (it also …

Mmmm Meatballs . . .

Some menus come to me easier than others. This one was a tough one, which is odd because Sundays are, by far, my favorite day to cook. I wish I was more organized and less brain dead because if I was maybe I’d have a big old google doc filled with fancy recipes that I could pick and choose from. …

Chef Spotlight: James Syhabout

Fans of that good hip hop (as opposed to whatever trash the kids are listening to in the internet these days) will have undoubtedly encountered a common theme running throughout much of the genre: keeping it real. When keeping it real goes right Slug (of Atmosphere fame) immortalized the “10,000 lakes” of his not-so-hip-hop hometown in this Minnesota anthem. In …

Reminisce for a spell

It’s ironic that being an active participant in life sometimes gets in the way of documenting said life. Which has been the case with our poor blog. Is that irony or just what happened? I asked Alanis but it’s definitely not like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife. Let’s just say in the future I promise to …

Kain na!

Let’s eat! As much as we enjoy experimenting with the exotic flavors and exciting foreign fixins that surround us here in San Jose, one of our most favorite-est ingredients to cook with is still nostalgia. What mom made, the treats that grandma snuck you, crazy snacks that dad would concoct, the foods that your stinking drunk funny uncle promised would …

Just like Mom used to make it . . . sorta . . . kinda . . . maybe

Yeah yeah we know. The blogging has a little bit lean on our end lately but for good reason. It’s summer! Our days have been filled with, well . . . with work. But our nights, have been filled with all sorts of procrastination and distractions. But fret not we’re back with a brand spankin’ new menu . . . …

Buckets of fun, pics from Poultry.

I’ve really come to like cooking these protein specific dinners. So far we’ve had a pork meal, a seafood meal and now chicken. Not only does it help me focus, it also makes me feel like an Iron Chef. Take note, that’s a link to the Japanese version, the one that my brother and I grew up watching on KTSF, …

Suds & Grub

It’s gonna be a wild wild Saturday night at The Wooden Table. Our diners are bringing some very fine alcoholic beverages to accompany the meal. It’ll be 5 courses paired with 5 beers (and they’restrong ones too). For the most part, dinner will be made up of elevated classics to accompany the craft brews, pizza, sisig (a favorite Filipino pulutan), …