Santouka Ramen at Mitsuwa best in the bay?

Santouka Ramen - One of the most famous ramen chains delights the world with creamy tonkatsu style ramen and serves delicious pork cheek meat.  Just look and you'll find them in Japan, Singapore, USA, Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Hong Kong!

My experience at Santouka in the San Jose Mitsuwa japanese grocery market was welcomed with a long line and anxious security guard making sure you don't block the flow of traffic.  The ramen is definitely worth coming to if you can also combine some japanese grocery shopping.  I got the spicy miso Toriniku(pork cheek) ramen and Ying got the salt flavored ramen.  The broth was incredible and had a very nice depth, milky thick consistency from the pork bone/marrow, salty, balance from pickled plums, and some tasty bonito.  They claim to boil their pork bones for 20 hours to develop their milky tonkatsu style broth.  Unfortunately the rest of the bowl ingredients were just subpar.  The bamboo shoots, fungus mushrooms, and noodles were just okay.  The Yakiniku pork cheeks along with other ingredients are served on a separate plate from the Ramen Bowl.  However a star was that the pork cheeks were tender, fatty and oh so tasty. They do not serve an egg with their ramen which to me is a must.  Orenchi is still the best Ramen (total package), but the broth at Santouka just can't be beat.  TTT approved especially if you can add in some shopping =).

Chef Leez Authentic Thai Bangkok Cooking School

Chef Leez Cooking Class in Bangkok Thailand

What to do in Bangkok Thailand?  How about Chef Leez Thai cooking class!  Over our two week India, Thailand, korea, Singapore trip, this was the most inspiring experience we had.  Definitely TTT approved and highly recommended if you go to Thailand. All recipes to the dishes listed below can be found on her website below.
http://www.chefleez.com/Mobile/index_files/FreeThaiMeatRecipes.htm

Salty, Sweet, Sour, spicy...  These are flavors that come to mind when you learn how to cook true Thai food.  Ying and I can never taste Thai food the same after tasting Chef Leez
true and original Thai flavors. Her cooking class was about 4 hours long and well worth the $50 cost as you not only learned how to cook the dishes but you also you got to eat them!  The food we cooked was better than the food we ate at restaurants.  She laid her class out very well and followed the below itinerary

- Short trip to local market to pick up and learn thai ingredients.

- Learn and Cook 8 dishes including Hot Chili Paste, Tom Yum Soup, Pad Thai, Green Curry, Pa-Nang Curry, Green Papaya Salad, and finished off with delicious Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango.

Local Market Trip

Aromatics - Galangal, long beans, lemongrass,
and cilantro (with the roots they taste different!)

China garlic vs. thai garlic vs. cambodian garlic.  Thai garlic is
 the small blue garlic in the middle and is the most expensive but also the most delicious

She's funny and was joking with others in the class

Keffir Lime Leaves Smell so good we bought our own tree!
  They are essential for thai food.

Tom Yum Soup

The first dish we cooked was Tom Yum clear soup.  It was bright, clean tasting, aromatic from the lemongrass , coriander and  keffir lime with a shrimp shell stock

Time to prep ingredients for the Tom Yum Soup

She made fresh cocounet cream with this tool

Key Aromatic Ingredients for Tom Yup Soup include
 galangal, cilantro roots, lemongrass, keffir lime leaves, chili 

Creamy tom yum soup also uses tamarind
paste, coconuit cream, and hot chili oil

The creamy soup was even better

Shrimp head oil and hot chili paste freshly made!

Pad Thai

Quite possibly the best pad thai we have ever tasted.  What we learned is that true pad thaio 

It's Pad Thai Time! turmeric tofu

The key flavors to true pad thai.  Tamarind paste, coconut sugar, and fish sauce.  It's not ketchuo and vinegar like the pad thai we eat in the states.

Add fried tofu, diced pickled daikon, and sauteed dried shrimp into the pad thai right after  you cook the egg

Chef Leez in action

The most delicious pad thai we've ever eaten and we cooked it =)

Pad Thai Ingredients
Shallots/garlic, Tamarind past+sugar+fish sauce, shrimp, rice noodles, egg, pickled daikon, fried tofu, dried shrimp, chives and bean sprouts

How does my pad thai look?  You'll notice it's mainly veggies and egg with very little noodle.

Ying's chicken pad thai

Mango sticky rice

Keffit lime is amazing!

Green Curry Paste

Difference between green and red curry paste is just green vs. red chili's

Papaya Salad using a mortar and pestle

So delicious  Perfect balance of saltiness from the shrimp and fish sauce, sweetness from the sugar, crunchy texture with the young papaya, keffirlime leaves/garlic for aromatics, and tomatoes for some extra juice/acidity

It was an awesome experience.  Chef Lee was reall cool and she loved to teach.  We left feeling inspired and educated on how to balance salty, sweet, and sour better.  TTT approved!