Shiro

Okay, some good friends took me to Shiro in South Pasadena for dinner for my birthday. It's French Japanese. Shiro is always at the stove, that's why the food is always good. Shiro has the reputation for the best catfish dish on the planet. In fact, people order it so often, he's actually sick of doing it. He tried taking it off the menu once and brought it back almost immediately because of the protests. The catfish, I must report, is really that good. I don't even like catfish that much, but his version is crazy crazy good. The fish has slits cut into it and thin slices of ginger is slipped into the incisions. Then it is lightly floured and fried to a perfect crisp. It's a big fish. Maybe four pound. The meat is perfectly light and crunchy on the outside and the flesh inside is perfectly tender and moist, redolent of carmelized ginger. There is a light ponzu soy sauce and fresh cilantro on top. It smells roughly like great southern fried chicken. It is so good, I don't know why it took me so long to try it. There is none of that muddy mushy taste that catfish sometimes has. Shiro's catfish is an elevated culinary experience. Simple and perfect. The service is wonderful. Other food there is also great, but the catfish really is transcendent.

Oh, other good eats right now...Europane has a couple of great new items. First is the cranberry/currant bread. It is cooked in a round cake pan. A solid wedge of the bread is chewy like Sumi's ciabbata, and there is a light crispiness on the outside. Each wedge must contain a cup or two of cranberry and currant. It's tart, moist chewy and satisfying. Also great is the almond cake. It's a low thing, only about 3/4 to an inch thick. The cake part is like a lightly sweet bread. The topping is slivered almonds, a little granulated sugar and a syrupy orange water scented glaze. The combination is remarkable--nutty, crunchy, floral, sticky, chewy. The complexity catches you off guard just a little bit and it's not super sweet and goes perfectly with green tea.
And lastly, Sumi, who attended a big bread making conference in San Francisco recently, as if her bread wasn't already great, has come back with something new. It's a farmer's loaf. It is a loaf full of nutty grains. It is so hearty and dense--it's almost meaty. It would be an incredible sandwich bread. Rare roast beef, turkey, even a rustic pate would all be a lovely complement to this muscular bread. Oh, lamb would be lights out. The big flavor of the bread would hold up to any of the grassiness of the lamb. With a little arugula and a coarse mustard...oh my.