- Green Tea Opera Cake served with Green Tea Ice Cream
We went to Miku, a fairly new Japanese restaurant on the Vancouver scene that specializes in Aburi-style sushi (“lightly seared and infused with savory French sauces”), sourcing local produce and ingredients for its artfully presented dishes. The room is colorful and contemporary, its open dining area surrounded by glass walls looking out onto an expansive patio.
We sat indoors and ordered six items from the menu. The first was one of the daily features, engawa nigiri, “engawa” being a choice muscle in a hirame’s (flounder‘s) dorsal fin. It was served three different ways – with a touch of salt and pepper, a spicy salsa, and the house Miku sauce – each one utterly delicate and delicious.
Our next dish was the Soba Peperoncino, Soba Noodle tossed in Olive Oil, Jalapeno, Squid and Bell Peppers. As she took our order, our waitress inquired whether we’d like it spicy or not. We, of course, requested the spicy version, but the Soba Peperoncino we were served lacked any real bite.
Next up was the King Roll – Prawn Tempura, Crab Meat, Avocado, Golden Caviar with Spicy Mayo Sauce. While tasty, it was a little unwieldy and struck me as more a menu item worthy of a less refined sushi eatery.
The next two dishes came together, two rolls – The Scallop Crunchy Roll (Chopped Scallop, Golden Caviar, Tempura Bits) and The Aburi Saba Oshi Sushi (Pressed Aburi Mackerel with Miso Sauce) – and proved out of this world. When I go back (and I will be back) I’ll be doing a double order of both.
Rounding out our mains was the Washugyu Carpaccio (American Kobe Beef with Avocado Sauce). The beef was very delicate – so delicate, in fact, that it was thoroughly overwhelmed by the accompanying sauce. Also, Fondy felt the meat could have benefited from a thinner slicing.
Now dessert rarely warrants a look at most Japanese restaurants but, Miku is different. It takes its sweets seriously. How seriously? Well, it apparently employs three different pastry chefs, one of whom hails from Kyoto. Impressive? You bet.
Fondy had the Yuzu Tart, a “Yuzu” Japanese Citron Cream Tart served with Vanilla Ice Cream. Although she found it a tad sweet, I had no problem polishing it off for her – and given my aversion to any trace of tartness in my desserts, that’s a huge compliment.
As for my dessert – well, just the other week, I had a Green Tea Opera Cake at Market. While good it, alas, in no way compared to The Greatest Cake I’ve Ever Had The Pleasure To Eat = The Green Tea Opera Cake at Sadaharu Aoki’s in Tokyo’s Roppogni Hills District. It turns out Mizu does their own version – Gateau and Almond Sponge Cake layered with Green Tea Cream and Ganache – served with an astoundingly dense and rich green tea ice cream. The verdit? Divine. Not as good as the Sadaharu Aoki version mind you, but remarkable nevertheless.
So, all in all, a wonderful dinner. Next time out, I’ll be skipping the soba and steak to in favor of the Aburi and Green Tea Opera Cake. Oishikatta! http://mikurestaurant.com/
Well, the month of May has come to an end and, thankfully, my dogs’ twitter account (http://twitter.com/JellMaxBubLu) did not achieve its targeted 1000 followers, thus sparing us all a spoiler pic of the first page of the Stargate: Extinction script (my contact on the inside tells me that was their diabolical plan). Unfortunately, they have managed to sneak out a few little spoilers buried within the texts of their existing twitters (http://twitter.com/JellMaxBubLu) but, thankfully, they’ve gone unnoticed. Still, the fight to deny my dogs their 1000 followers continues (here: http://twitter.com/JellMaxBubLu). Please, do your part to avoid the risk of further Stargate Atlantis movie and Stargate Universe spoilers getting out by NOT sign up to follow my dogs on twitter (http://twitter.com/JellMaxBubLu)!
Oh, yeah – my bad in a recent post when I was trying to wrack my brain to figure out what story I’d failed to list in the back half. In fact, I forgot that Space was pushed to #11 – so they all move down a slot.
And speaking of slots, great news on the director front. Both Peter DeLuise and Alex Chapple will be returning to direct episodes in the back half.
Today’s blog entry is dedicated to birthday individual unegawaya.
The mailbag:
PG15 writes: “1. Did the same freelancer write Faith and #14, or were they written by different people?
2. Will you be able to tell us the Freelancer’s names eventually?
3. Any ideas on when more promotional stuff is coming out? Besides this blog, things have been pretty quiet on the SGU front.
4. Some over at Gateworld have been wondering on the action-quota of SGU, since it’s more character-focused. What can you say about the quantity (i.e. are there as many action scenes as in the past?) and quality (are they done differently than in the past?) of the action scenes in SGU? “
Answers: 1. Nope. Different freelancers.
2. Yep.
3. No idea what MGM and SciFi are planning on their end. My guess is this year’s San Diego Comic Con will be the big roll-out (late July).
4. There will be plenty of action for those of you into that sort of thing. The episode presently in prep for instance, Space, is going to be spectacular. The Visual Effects meeting started at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon and they were still in there when I left.
Arctic Goddess writes: “Of all the cool props and gadgets, as well as seriously hot costumes from the past decade and a half of Stargate, would you personally like to have in your home or to wear? “
Answer: Baal’s wardrobe. And probably one of those nifty Icarus uniforms.
DasNdanger writes: “1. How are you liking Y – The Last Man and Scalped??
2. Wasn’t there links to other sites/blogs over on the right side? Where did they go?”
Answers: 1. Liking Y: The Last Man, loving Scalped.
2. Yep, there was a list and it did, indeed, disappear. I had to go back into my widget controls to make it magically reappear. Thanks for the heads up.
Daniel Willis writes: “Is there a style of filming that the Stargate series has? What I mean is that there are always different directors making the different episodes, so do they have to be told what they can and can’t do with the episode? If so, what are the sort of limitations… Can you explain the process a little?”
Answer: The shooting style will be a little looser, allow the director more freedom to move the camera rather than have to rely on static shots. This doesn’t mean it’s going to be shot in a nausea-inducing handheld documentary style. Rather, it will be more visually dynamic than its predecessors. Before the season began, Brad and Robert sat down and talked to Andy Mikita about what they envisioned for the show – and Andy delivered big time in the opening three-parter. Ensuing directors took their cues from Brad, Rob, Andy, and the look of those three episodes.
Kathi writes: “1. Can you please explain the relationship between Teyla and John? Are they “Almost lovers”, or like brother and sister or is there only a team- relation?
2. Have you ever visit germany?”
Answers: 1. There is certainly a mutual attraction there but, alas, Teyla has settled down with Kanaan.
2. Not yet.
Ben writes: “Are you able to find out the progress of the Stargate Worlds game, and any prospective release/beta dates?”
Answer: Sorry. I’m out of the loop on the game.
Chevron7 writes: “I’m wondering if it would be useful to have a static page on the dogs, some vital statistics, which dog is which etc. In addition, maybe a static page of book/movie recommendations for SciFi & Horror, graphic novels & comics etc. What do you think? Too much work?”
Answer: It’s not that much work – just that my right sidebar is pretty busy as it is.
JimFromJersey writes: “I read mostly Stephen King and Clive Barker for the years following, at one point owning every King book published until 2001.”
Answer: I was big into Clive Barker. I very much enjoyed King as well.
JimFromJersey also writes: “Williams masterfully recreated his London in minute detail. Including actual place names, streets, dates and minutiae that brought the story to life amongst all of that death. He poetically lays bare the beauty of horror, much in the fashion of Clive Barker.”
Answer: Agreed. As I said, The Unblemished had strong echoes of Barker. Regarding the “London in minute detail” comment – do you live/have you ever lived in London? Did your familiarity with the city make the horror all the more effective?
JimFromJersey also writes: “However, the detail is also one of my only criticisms. There was too much of it in places that didn’t bear the need for it.”
Answer: I thought Williams struck a fine balance. That said, I thought the same thing of a previous book only to have someone comment that they found there wasn’t enough description and detail. To each his own I suppose.
JimFromJersey also writes: “My other criticism is the lack of explanation of the missing authorities. The cops gone? Ok…maybe. But the military? Not likely.”
Answer: You know, that is a very good point. Even if, say, they dealt with the military as well, they did so awful quickly…
Chevron7 also writes: “ Any news with Paul & yourself on the comic series front? You were vision pitching last week weren’t you?”
Answer: Final conference call with the President of the company on Thursday in which we’ll pitch out our vision for the series: talking dogs and invisible monkeys.
Michael A. Burstein writes: “The Spider in the Hairdo” was a horror/SF story I wrote a few years back for an anthology called Urban Nightmares. I still can’t go back to it because it gives me nightmares.”
Answer: Extra points for the title!
Major D. Davis writes: “1. Besides Air, Earth and Life, will there be any episodes partially set on earth( you know, getting out of those sound stages for a breath of fresh air)?
2. When do you think we will be able to see some interesting SGU updates( such as MGM’s Secret Project)/ Us fans are dying for new news.”
Answers: 1. It’s possible.
2. Again, I’m not sure what the studio or network have planned.
Joshua writes: “Hey Joe; I would really not like to take comments made in interviews out of context. What is your thoughts on this statement(Just as the sentence itself, not some pissing contest with well…the other joe.)
“If Universe is successful, the prevailing theory among the writers and producers will be that actors are dispensible and not a critical part of the show(Joe Flanigan)””
Answer: Well, anyone who has frequented this blog for any amount of time knows that isn’t true. Over the past few months, I’ve expressed my excitement about the upcoming Stargate: Universe series and, more often than not, my comments have centered on our wonderful cast. From Robert Carlyle to our local supporting players, they are all very talented, professional, and genuinely kind individuals. As I told Michael Shanks and wife Lexa Doig the last time they dropped by the office: It’s an embarrassment of riches for us this year. And, speaking of actors from our former shows, feel free to search this blog for what I’ve had to say about actors like Michael Shanks, Lexa Doig, Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Don S. Davis, Beau Bridges, Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Robert Picardo, Jewel Staite, Rachel Luttrell, David Hewlett, Jason Momoa, and David Nykl – to name just a few – and it will be readily apparent that we have great respect for the contribution cast members past and present have made to the franchise. Of course, it’ll be up to you, the fans, to form your opinion on this new cast. But take it from someone who has been working with them since February – every one of them is not only great at what they do, but incredibly down to earth. Not an inflated ego or demanding grandstander in the bunch.
Shanise writes: “I’m trying to find on what would be engraved on John Sheppard’s dogtags. I bought a set of dogtags and would like to get it engraved.”
Answer: “I’M NUMBER ONE”.
Nadine writes: “Just one question today: what are your thoughts on the proposal to close a lane each way on the Burrard Bridge for bicycles? Do you use it often enough for it to make a difference or are you rather ambivalent?”
Answer: I think it’s a terrible idea that will lead to traffic chaos. City Hall’s thinking is that the move will be good for the environment because it will encourage people to bike into town. Of course the reality is that this bonehead move will actually hurt the environment because of all the backed-up cars idling on the bridge.
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