An amazing tip on how to peel a head of garlic!

A friend recently posted this video on Facebook. It's a fast and easy way to peel a head of garlic demonstrated by Saveur Magazine's Executive Food Editor Todd Coleman.

Video from YouTube: "How to peel a head of garlic in less than 10 seconds." Saveur.com

Thanksgiving leftovers? Here are some ideas.

We found some great recipes for leftovers in "A Radical Rethinking of Thanksgiving Leftovers," in NY Times Magazine, by Mark Bittman, Nov. 2011.

Check out some of the recipes from the article which include:

• Indian-spiced turkey-lentil soup. 
• Eggs baked in stuffing. 
• Mashed potato gratin with jalapenos. 
• Cranberry yogurt parfaits. 
• Cranberry and gruyere grilled cheese sandwich. 

Here's a recipe for a cranberry-infused cocktail also from the article:

Cranberry Negronis
"Mix equal parts gin, Campari, vermouth and cranberry sauce in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain. Garnish with an orange or lemon peel."


Happy Thanksgiving~! Hopefully dinner at your house wasn't anything like this....

Video from YouTube posted by Dblaness.

Thanksgiving and kimchi, it's tradition

Turkey and kimchi, a great flavor combination ;)

Do you have an atypical tradition celebrated by your family during the holidays? 

"Korean food isn't shy."

Video from YouTube uploaded by KimchiChronicles. 

The "Kimchi Chronicles" is described as "part travelogue, part food fantasy and part documentary of self-discovery." 

Each episode discovers and highlights a part of Korean cuisine that is both colorful and hunger-inducing in a way that we've never seen before, especially in a made-for-American broadcast on Korean food. 

The show stars Marja Vongerichten, who was born near Seoul to a Korean mother and an American soldier and was ultimately adopted by a family in Virginia at the age of three. 

Years later, she eventually reunited with her birth mother in Brooklyn who cooked her a traditional Korean meal and the meal, she said, flooded back memories and taste of her childhood in Korea. 

Her husband is critically acclaimed chef Jean-George Vongerichten who received the top honor of three stars from the Michelin Guide. 

Check out our review of The Patio, a Korean barbeque restaurant in Tustin that's famous for its grilled kimchi. 

For more information on the "Kimchi Chronicles," visit kimchichronicles.tv.

Shrimp tempura for dummies

This video from YouTube is a meticulous, step-by-step 

and fool-proof way to make fried ebi*. 

Editor's note: Watch for the great tips on how to 

remove shrimp poo and prevent curling. 

Video from YouTube uploaded by CookingWithDog

*Prawns.

Chiritorinabe please

Feel like eating Japanese tonight? Maybe you haven't tried this.

It's called Chiritorinabe and it's a spicy stew-like soup with vegetables and meat that's savory and delicious.

At Oki Doki in Tustin, a mini-stove is brought to the table holding a square pan filled with vegetable broth and stacked with pork, beef intestine and vegetables.

After cooking down the tall pyramid of vegetables and meat and after eating all the soup, diners add rice to make a Japanese-inspired risotto that should satisfy any comfort food enthusiast.

Cabbage, spicy kimchi, bean sprouts, pork and beef intestine waiting to be cooked down. 

Here are some basic guidelines to help you get started: 

Step 1: Mix and cook down the ingredients. Wait until done, which means the beef intestine should taste buttery and tender until it falls apart in your mouth. This takes a while so don't rush. 

We never thought we would say it, but beef intestine is really good!

Step 2: After eating plenty of the hearty stew, add rice or noodles and cook down.

This still needs about five more minutes and should resemble the consistency of risotto. 

There are a wide variety of additional toppings available to add, ranging from pork cheek, leek or enoki, but we like to keep it simple.

1. Plain soup. (We don't add anything, it's good the way it is.)
2. "Japanese risotto" rice at the end.

Favorite part of the meal: The beef intestine is so buttery, tender and flavorful and the epitome of fatty goodness.

Editor's tip: Have the waitstaff help you. Yuki, a waiter at the restaurant made us the BEST chiritorinabe. If he's around, ask for him. Tip #2: Save some intestine at the end to mix with the rice. Yummm!

Here are a few other items we also love to eat at Oki-Doki:

Kakuni: Pork belly stewed until tender topped with bok choy. 

Halibut carpaccio with sea salt, lemon juice and yuzu citrus pepper. Simple but amazing, especially the yuzu citrus pepper. We wish they would bottle it up and sell it. 

Oki Doki's homemade sesame tofu served cold or hot (pictured) agedashi style. Instead of soy beans, this dish is sesame-based and has a unique texture and nutty flavor.  

Oki Doki is located at 13681 Newport Ave. #9 in Tustin near the 5 freeway. Closed from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on weekdays.

Mama's recipe lives on

One of the girls just got back from a family trip to Maui and raved about Sansei's "Granny Smith" Apple Tart. 

The combination of the flaky crust, thinly sliced apples on top, homemade warm caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream was amazing! It's also sprinkled with cinnamon. Yummy!

Photo by Jeanie Nguyen

The dessert is baked to order and the recipe of chef/owner DK Kodama's mother,  Sandy, who passed away about two and a half years ago. 

"All the desserts come from her," said Chef Kaipo, the executive chef of Sansei at the Kapalua Resort. "Everyone called her Mom Kodama." 

The caramel sauce was one of Mom Kodama's special recipes and tasted incredible. 

Take a look at Sansei's other menu offerings here. 

Spring roll nom nom

555 Girl loves, loves, loves springs rolls and Brodard's famous grilled pork sausage spring rolls are the best, hands down. 

"Nem nuong"is served with a spicy, sweet peanut sauce. 

The grilled sausage is warm and contrasts with the fresh
cucumber, cilantro and lettuce wrapped inside the thin rice paper. 

The best part: Crispy eggroll skins gives the soft spring rolls a crunch with each bite. 

Brodard's is located at 9892 Westminster Ave. in Garden Grove. 

Editor's note: Avoid the long wait and ask to sit outside in the patio. 

Chef recommended Honda-Ya

One of our favorite restaurant groups in Southern California, Izakaya Honda-Ya has locations in Old Town Tustin, Lil' Tokyo and Fountain Valley.

In Tustin, there's always a long wait and most locals gravitate to the specialty of the house - grilled yakitori.

Without fail, we always order the beef tongue, pork belly and asparagus bacon. Crazy good.

On this day, however, 555 Girl decided to forego our regular order and only request chef-recommended menu items.


Here is what we found.

Gindara Miso: soft, tender and delicately marinated sweet miso black cod. OMG....

The dish is small, but each bite is absolute perfection. 

Cume-shiso tempura: Red snapper wrapped in shiso leaves with plum sauce inside.  This was served with a wedge of lemon and green tea salt. Green tea salt?? We were giddy.

Yam-somen: Thinly sliced fresh yam with cold fish broth. We really tried to love this dish, not just because it was so pretty to look at but because we love the chefs at Honda-Ya. For us, the dish was too slimy and had the flavors of raw and sour radish. 

Buta-kaku: "Soft pork with a small side of boil spinach." If you love and appreciate fat, this is probably one of the best ways to get it. The pork belly is so tender and the fat is perfectly marinated and full of flavor.

Ch. 1 Pt. Deux

555 Girl revisits Chapter One: the modern local in Santa Ana's Arts District this weekend. 

We first visited Chapter One in June, shortly after they officially opened and it seems like they have definitely settled in. Here are some highlights of the evening. 

The specials: non-menu items. 

Chile relleno - We almost didn't order this dish and it ended up being our favorite. It had a nice crisp on the outside and was spicy and creamy on the inside. 

Flaming Cheese - It was definitely cheesy but we were surprised to find it thick and almost chewy. Some of the girls loved it and others thought "eh." 

Menu selections:

Even though this dish wasn't a crowd favorite, one of our editors loved the Moroccan chicken sandwich. The best part she said was that it was one of the lighter options on the menu. The flavors tasted subtle and simple even though they really weren't. The sandwich is layered with Indian spices, yogurt, cranberry aioli, chipotle cumin flatbread and served with a lentil salad. 

The flavors of the beef culotte are interesting and perfect for someone in the mood to try something new. Here's how Chapter One describes the dish - "bacon-wrapped, coffee & chocolate crusted, dijon smashed potatoes chocolate soil, soy caramel, fried wontons, sesame powder." A little too much? It doesn't taste as complicated as it sounds.

Editor's note - We also ordered our favorite Portabella burger (not pictured.) See photos from our first visit to Chapter One - here. 

We were disappointed with the scallops. The lemon parsley puree and truffle oil were masked by a heavy layer of salt that made us wince with each bite. 


One of our 555 girls couldn't get enough of Chapter One and went again the next morning for its Sunday Brunch. She raved about the $5 champagne flights and the Grand Marnier french toast. We'll have an update soon. 

Singaporean spices heat up Lil' Tokyo

After hearing much hype about The Spice Table from friends and Mozza insiders, we were excited to head up to L.A. to taste the Southeast Asian flavors created by Chef Bryant Ng, former Mozza chef who decided to open up his own restaurant in Little Tokyo. 

So, what makes The Spice Table so special? First, it's a taste of gourmet Singaporean cuisine - not gourmet in the sense of gussied-up fare, but by expertly executed classics and street food favorites. 

Fried Cauliflower
One of their popular dishes. Perfectly fried cauliflower - think fried chicken nuggets. The dish is served with a side of chili fish sauce which helps cut the grease from the fry.

Sambal Fried Potatoes  
Heavy flavor of chile paste, but a nice spice. Crispy, homey and satisfying. As noted in L.A. Weekly's review by Jonathan Gold, these are like the fried potatoes at Mozza but with a shmear of chile paste.

Chile Prawn Satays
Good overall but not outstanding. There is a strong flavor of chile spice and the shells require a little bit of work. Editor's note: The satays are cooked on a wood burning hearth. 

Beef Rendang
Chunky, tender, hearty, well-braised beef smothered with a spicy red curry and topped off with a mild coconut sauce.

Other items to try:
Kon loh mee (egg noodles, choy sum, ground pork, char siu)
Perfectly cooked noodles, full of flavor from the ground pork. Great texture and very satisfying.

Hainanese Rice
A flavorful accompaniment to a traditional Hainanese chicken dish. The rice is cooked in chicken fat, so it has a rich and buttery flavor with a jasmine accent at the end. Definitely worth a try.

There are many Asian fusion spots on the food scene but The Spice Table excels not because by mish-mashing various cultural dishes together, but by expertly preparing classics that are rarely accessible outside of adventures to Southeast Asia. 

This post was contributed by the Honeymooners, 555 Girl's newlywed and romantic duo who will be celebrating their first anniversary this September in Spain. Look out for future posts from their culinary adventures soon. 

Too good to be true, but it's vegan.

We've been hearing great things about Free Soul Caffe in Old Town Tustin but the completely vegan fare made some of the meat lovin' 555 girls wary. 

One of our contributors is vegetarian so we thought we should go check it out. 

We were blown away. You're not going to walk away saying "It's not bad for being vegan." 

It really is that amazing. The bread was perfectly toasted, the seasoning is spot on and nothing you would expect from a typical boring old sandwich. 

The smoked vegan ham sandwich had avocado slices, sliced cucumbers and fresh cracked black pepper. This was our favorite.  

The ratio and cut of each ingredient was perfect and the "smoked ham" was truly delicious. We've tried veggie "meats" before and this was nothing like it. 

The portobello panini had roasted red bell pepper and artichoke. The salad was really fresh and perfectly seasoned. 

All the ingredients oozed and melded together and each bite was hearty and yummy....

Pièce de résistance - peanut butter torte. How the hell did they make this without using cream or butter? It was so rich and delicious. We were literally swooning.

All of their food is animal-friendly, sustainable and vegan. You won't even find honey here. 


We love you Free Soul Caffe!


Free Soul Caffe is located at 191 E. Main St. 

"Pig's head, good."

Even us OC girls venture outside county lines sometimes. 

Here's what we found on a recent visit to Stefan's L.A. Farm in Los Angeles. 

Chef Steven Richter, who was featured in Bravo's "Top Chef," offers amazing dishes that make you feel like an invited guest to one of the show's cooking challenges. 

See photos of Richter's inspired creations below.

"Pig's head" served with a yellow tomato vinaigrette and watercress salad. 

"Beef tartar" and egg, "sunny side up." 

"Mini foie gras sandwich" (left) and "Like a Big Mac" mini-slider with gouda (top).  

Small plates ranged in price from $3 to $6. 

For more information on the Stefan's at L.A. Farm visit the website here. 

555 Girl hearts David Chang

We found this video on "Munchies" VBS.TV - Watch Chang's interesting take on food which also features chef Jose Andres - "Only a crazy mind would come up with a coffee-mayo bullshit...with ham...and it's unbelievably good." -J. Andres

David Chang, chef and owner of Momofuku restaurants in New York City. Video by YouTube and VBS.TV

Eat, Drink, Man, 555 Girl

One of our favorite foodie movies!!

"Eat, Drink, Man, Woman," opening scene. 

"Eat Drink Man Woman" directed by Ang Lee. Video by YouTube. Ang Lee Productions, Central Motion Pictures Corp. and Good Machine. 

Happy hour Mondays

Happy Hour* at Gyu-kaku in Tustin is available all day Mondays and has a great selection of food and drink specials.

Here are a few of our favorites: 

1. The garlic topping on the spicy cold tofu ($2) was awesome. (Editor's note: Order extra garlic topping on the side to eat with barbecue.)

2. The garlic fried noodles ($5.95) with ground chicken was served in a hot stone bowl and was delicious. 

The noodles were a little spicy and very garlicky. One of our favorites!

3. The cold sake ($5) was chilled and went well with the food. Other drink specials included Sapporo draft pitchers ($7.95) and wine ($3). 

Miso butter fish ($4.95): Cooked in foil and a 555 Girl favorite!
(*Editor's note 11/30/11: On a recent trip back to Gyu-kaku in Tustin, we found the miso butter fish was taken off the happy hour menu and is no longer offered at the discounted price.)

Avoid the New York steak miso and kim-chee. The steak was dry, kim-chee was salty and both were lacking in flavor.










Located on Newport Ave. in Tustin near the 5 freeway, we prefer Gyu-kaku during happy hour when its appetizer prices are up to 50 percent off.

Reservations help avoid any long waits and can be made by calling (714) 731-1719.

*All prices listed in this post are happy hour prices. 

555 Girl's Cream Pan brunch

The long lines at Cream Pan, a Japanese bakery and cafe in Tustin, are filled with customers that know they won't be disappointed. The bakery is most famous for their strawberry croissants. 

The Azuki Cream Pan - a little red bean and lots of yummy cream. 

The Cinnamon Roll was incredibly sticky and delicious!

The fluffy white bread and simple ingredients made for perfect little sandwiches .

Ham and lettuce (top), egg salad and cucumber slices, tuna and tomato and egg salad.

Cream Pan is open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily except Monday and is located on El Camino Real near Old Towne Tustin where the 5 Freeway and Newport Ave. meet. 


Editor's note: Get there early to get the freshest baked goods. Items will run out. 

California girls love cocktails

We found these delicious three-ingredient Summer cocktails in the New York Times. Yummy, refreshing and easy-to-make, these recipes are perfect for warm California evenings at the beach.

1. Cherry Caiprissima* - Cherries, lime and rum.

Photos from The New York Times website. 

 2. Sumo Collins* - Gin, citrus and chilled seltzer.

3. Spellbinder* - Gin, dry vermouth and Strega

4. Guadalajara Sour* - Tequila blanco, lemon juice and chilled rose. 

5. Live Basil Gimlet* - Fresh basil, gin and lime juice. 

Check out recipes and the full story on NYTimes.com.

*Garnish and/or simple syrup recommended.