@ForkReporter | Hour 1

Technique of the Week: Zhuzh Recipes Up
Guest- Chef Shin (Asian Pacific American Heritage Month)

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Oh, look at us having allkinds of deep thoughts. Hey, Kayla,

(00:03):
Yeah, Neil, we should putthat little preaching bit on there.
You're probably not gonna get this one. What do you call someone who electrocutes
a hot dog? Barb? Idon't know. I was gonna try Frank
Zappa. Hey, it's Niel Savedri. You're listening to kf I am six
forty the four Report on demand onthe iHeartRadio app. Don't forget to follow

(00:25):
us on that iHeartRadio app. Ifyou're listening to us there, there's a
little follow button and that gets youwhen we do pushes about breaking news here
at KFI and special guests and topicsand the likes. So please do that
winning you get eight chance. Weare in freaking June. What June third?

(00:52):
And I'm this, I mean whiplashwith the speed of this year,
and we it's like having like anold car. I feel we can't get
it to start in the proper season. Keep grinding. It's spring. No,
it's winter, spring going into summer. No, it's kind of hazy.

(01:21):
Okay, well, June, weshould eventually get to there. So
I'm already grilling finding excuses to grill, even an overcast, all of these
things. I get it, butit's really hard. Normally. I'm like,
Okay, here's what we call seasonsin quote southern California. Here's some
tips and tricks for those. SoI'm going back to some basics today for
Technique of the Week, and I'mgoing to focus on just using them up.

(01:47):
About that that sounds like something doctorPete, my friend doctor p Chef,
Pehopian, doctor Laura, whatever youwant to call her, would say,
juju up? How does juju up? And in this particular case,
a couple of things to make yourmeals even better? The things that you

(02:08):
see chefs do when they're prepping,when they're doing their mesan plas, that
is everything in its place and preparing. You know, when you see on
TV they're making a meal and theyhave everything in these tiny little cups and
you go wow, And they probablydidn't do that. Somebody in the crew
chomped all that stuff up. Butchefs do it. And chefs have their

(02:28):
sioux chefs or their under chefs,and they have the brigade the line that
produces all these things as well.But what chefs do is over and overwork
their knife skills to learn to makethings the same size. Now, what
does that mean? When you're cuttingvegetables the same size? That means,
however you're preparing them, they aregoing to cook evenly. You're not going

(02:53):
to have some more dentse some softer. You're going to cut evenly. The
next part of elevating your dish,whatever you're making, is to even things
out. Those measurements are important andI know a lot of people go,
well, I don't cook with recipesI apply great, doesn't matter. You

(03:15):
still need to work your knife skillsto make things even. That is why
there are different ways to cut things. And you do a Julianne and you
do this, and you're doing theone by one squares or whatever you're doing
that has a purpose in the waythat will cook. So the first thing

(03:38):
is to put on all of ourlists when cooking at home is focus on
consistency. Focus on things being evenwhen you're cutting them, so that they
will all be consistent when cooking.And that way you won't have one soft
potato one harder potato. All ofthis comes together nicely. That's something that

(04:03):
is worth mastering, and I highlyencourage you to go out get carrots or
whatever it is. There are listsof the different types of cutting styles and
how to cut things or break thingsdown and practice doing them. It's a
great way to hone your knife skills. Same with onions and everything else that

(04:26):
you use. There being even isgoing to help the process. And it's
one of those things that a lotof people don't think about, but it
will elevate your food. Keep stockon hand, Keep different stocks on hand,
whether they're vegetable stocks, beef stock, chicken stock, whatever it might
be. I mean, a greatthing. The best way to do it

(04:50):
is to make your own stock veryeasy, and then you can build it
into a broth with seasoning and thelike. But to have that on hand
is a powerful tool. I'm notever going to try and convince you that
I'm making stocks all the time.I'm not. It's not. Usually.
It's special occasions that I remember too, whether it's Thanksgiving or special meal,

(05:13):
that remind myself to do it.Because my wife will tell you that I,
at least by her perception, ifit goes into the freezer, I
forget about it. But that's notexactly true. Sometimes but not completely.
Like sometimes I'll put something in thereand she'll go what is this And I
go, oh, it's the crumbsfrom the bottom of the cheese. It's

(05:34):
She goes, whize it in thefreezer, and I said, yeah,
if I make back in cheese,I'll crunch it up and put it on
top, or put it with somebutter and saute it a little bit and
then put it on. And shegoes, Okay, let me know when
you're gonna do I don't know.Just keeping things on hand. Why,
because stocks are very easy to makeinto sauces, simple sauces as well.

(05:58):
They can also add flame to things. If you you know, many chefs
will tell you don't add anything thatdoesn't bring flavors. So many chefs don't
even like using water, just plainwater. Oftentimes they're going to use a
stock or something that's going to bringextra flavor into it, and keeping that
in mind will help you add justa little kick to something a little more

(06:21):
than just adding water. For instances, so you know, Bray's chicken,
preparing risotto, even when you're glazingcarrots, these things can be used and
it's wonderful simmering. This is oneof those things that can be a pain
because often gas even gas stoves,which I think are the better way to

(06:49):
go. I think a lot ofthis garbage about getting rid of gas stoves
is stupidity and just trying to makepeople free out. But anyhood for another
day. In this particular case,it can be hard to simmer unless you
have a designated burner that goes downvery small. Some have them. You

(07:10):
can tell they have a smaller headon them, and that will help you
get to those simmering modes. Onan electric stovetopic can be a little more
difficult, But the whole point iswhen you simmer, when you get that
low simmer, you are starting toreduce things, and sometimes reducing things just
a little bit make them more denseand more flavorful and more scrumptious, and

(07:36):
that in itself ends up making yourmeal better. So just a little bit
of that bringing it down simmering,and then you can add a little acid
to it to brighten it, soyou get a little thicker texture to the
meal. And then you brighten itup with a tiny bit of vinegar or
a little lemon juice or something likethat to make it kind of pop.

(07:59):
You'd be surprise about learning learning moreabout acid is going to be a key
as well. That comes from citrus, that comes from vinegars, it can
come from tomatoes, just a littlebit of acid. How sometimes that will
make a meal pop and learning thatis can be difficult sometimes and it's usually

(08:20):
much less than you think, butit can make a pop. When we
come back elevating other things, boxedcakes, things like that to make them
taste homemade, or how to puta pop in a boxed meal for the
family, maybe boxed rice or somethinglike that that will just give it a
little bit more life. You're listeningto The Fork Report with Neil Sevadra on

(08:41):
demand from KFI AMZI forty. Heyeverybody, it's the Fork Report. How
are you happy Saturday? I amyour friendly neighborhood Fork Reporter Neil Sevadra.
How do you do? This showbasically sets aside three hours every week just
to shake off the news. It'sa senk showever for us to come together
and celebrate food, the people thatmake get, the cultures behind it,

(09:05):
tips tricks, going out to eat. Obviously, supporting local hospitality groups and
restaurants is imperative to the local economyand boy have they been kicked in the
bathing suit areas for the last couplethree years. So any who, that's

(09:26):
what we do here. Thanks forhanging out. A lot of show to
get to including I think I mayopen the phones later on about the curiosity.
My wife and I were talking aboutthis, the curiosity of why samples
taste better at Costco than when youbuy them and bring them home. Right,
that's a thing. I don't knowif that's a thing. So we

(09:48):
may open up the phone later andfind out if it's a thing. I
have a theory. I mean,I usually don't go through that. I
know. I'm a professional when Itasted, I know, but there's some
psychology there and I'll being curious.We'll open up the phones later on that.
Right now, we're talking about jujunthings up, elevating boxed dinners,

(10:11):
boxed meals, whatever it is.Earlier we talked about talk. We talked
about just proper ways and techniques ofmaking when you're making a meal, certain
things to keep in mind, likeif you're cutting vegetables, is keep them
the exact same size. Consistency matterswhen you're cooking. Now, I want
to go in a little different directiontowards those boxed meals I'm gonna I'm gonna

(10:35):
pull two different things just to giveyou ideas. I'm gonna go the sweet
route with a cake. How tojug up a boxed cake? And I'll
pause right now for my friend andboss, Robin Bird Luchet to be screaming
at the radio never years a boxedcake because she cooks everything, bakes anything

(11:00):
from scratch that's great, but notalways. And then also something that we
all eat a lot and oftentimes froma box, and that is macaroni and
cheese. So quickly, let's lookat the sweet side of things. How
to jog up a cake mix.I've told you before that you can cut

(11:22):
out the fat, adding any oil, and you can cut out you know,
eggs, and just put a twelveounce can of your favorite soda or
beer. As a matter of fact, you get a spiced cake and you
put a beer in a GA Guinnesstwelve ounce Guinness, and you've got an
amazing beer forward spice cake like thatnothing else. You cook it the same

(11:48):
way it says in the box.So we've talked about that tip before that
you can do that, But inthat same spirit, there are also other
things you can do. If itsays on the box to use three eggs,
use a fourth. That's going togive you more moisture, a more
structure. It's going to be richer, denser, and it's going to be
lovely. Substitute dairy, right,So if it says put water in,

(12:15):
use dairy, you use milk,or better yet, use buttermilk. Buttermilk
will give it a bit of tang. And for those of you that aren't
familiar, you can actually buy buttermilkin powder form. You have to refrigerate
it after opening, but you canuse it to make buttermilk in the moment,

(12:37):
So something to think about for that. But dairy adds fat and it
gives such a homemade taste. Tokeep those things in mind when you're adding
stuff to the cake. You canreplace water with any other liquid. I,
for instance, make a chocolate cakethat APT calls for hot water,
and I love it. It's agreat chocolate cake recipe, very loose,

(12:58):
bad, but man does it bakeup moist and delicious. But instead of
water, I use coffee or espresso. So it doesn't make it mocha flavored.
It's not making it coffee flavored.What it's doing is it's brightening the
flavor of and enhancing the flavor ofthe chocolate by countering it with another bean,

(13:22):
the coffee bean, and it addsgreatness to it. You could also
do mix ins. A little bitof acid or go citrus with the zest
of a lemon or an orange isgreat, and don't be shy to add
more of the extract. So ifyou're using vanilla and tossing in a little
extra teaspoon is gonna make the flavorbrighter and better as well. It's always

(13:48):
an excellent choice. But there areother things as well. There's almond extract
which is wonderful. I'll put thatin cookie sometimes and it just gives them
this really wonder full smell and justa hint of the flavor. You can
buy lemon extract as well, andyou can add these to enhance different flavors.
Little almond extract into a strawberry cakewill punch it up. Some people

(14:13):
use jello, believe it or not, jello pudding. You can add the
mix into your cakes and it makesthem denser and moist and really fabulous that
way. The biggest thing that youcan do is make your frosting at home,
because when you're making frosting at home. It's going to make everything taste

(14:33):
like it was homemade very quickly.A homemade frosting. I'll read this off
to you. This is an Americanbuttercream. So you don't use I don't
think you use the double broiler oranything like a boiler or anything like that
on this. So one and ahalf cups salted butter, or you can
use shortening, or you can combinethe two, and that would be one

(14:56):
cup butter to a half cup shortening, one teaspoon vanilla extract, two pounds
of powdered sugar sifted six tablespoons toeight tablespoons milk as needed to bring it
together, and you cream the buttershortening completely smooth. You beat in the
vanilla extract, and you can puta little bit of fine sea or kosher

(15:22):
salt in there too. You wantto do this on low speed shift add
the sifted sugar about one cup ata time, alternating with a tablespoon of
milk milk and scraping the sides andall that, and it just becomes the
thick, delicious, wonderful frosting thatyou made at home, and you can
flavor it any way you want byadding cocoa powder and the like. Oh

(15:46):
man, right up against that cloth. I wanted to get into the powdered
sugar, I mean, the themac and cheese. We'll do that later.
I'll bring that back up later becauseI wanted to talk about that.
But we've got some guests coming upthat I want you to meet. It
is The Fork Report. I'm NeilSavedra kf I AM six forty You're listening
to The Fork Report with Neil Savedraon demand from KFI AM six forty three

(16:10):
hours every Saturday, to celebrate food, the culture behind it, the people
making it, cooking at home,going out to eat, exploring new flavors,
textures. The goal. I rememberearly on, over a decade now
ago, when someone asked me what'sthe show going to be about? I
said, you know what, Ijust want to knock snobs down a little

(16:30):
bit and people that are afraid offood and trying new things up a little
bit so we can all meet inthe middle and see how wonderful food can
be and how important it is toevery culture. And it has been at
the center of the table of anywar treatise, any peace treatise, anytime

(16:51):
anybody comes together for something good,marriage, even heartfelt things like funerals,
it always surrounds food. It issomething that builds us up and gives us
comfort in times of pain and timesof joy. So that's what we do.
We celebrate that every single Saturday,and part of that is bringing people
to your tension that we think youshould know if you notice. Although we

(17:15):
do have some star style chefs orTV chefs on and all of that,
our goal is to introduce you tothe real stars and those are local chefs
here that are creating cuisine and reallydefining the landscape, the culinary landscape of
the south Land. And today wewant to introduce you to Chef Shin And
I know AAPI Heritage Month was May, but all it's always a good time.

(17:40):
And we had to move a coupleof times getting you in here and
making it work for your schedule andthe like, but it's wonderful to have
you here. Oh thank you somuch, so thanks for coming in the
website to find out more. Iwant you to know is niku X.
That's nik ux dot com and ikux dot com if you want to learn

(18:03):
more about the restaurant. As wetalk about that today. So heavily influenced
by your childhood in Yamaguchi, Japan, you want to obviously honor that in
the creations you do today. Butwhat is the X, what's that different
thing that you bring to the tablehere in the south Land. Yeah,
So Niku X is a yaki nikurestaurant, and traditionally that's Japanese barbecue,

(18:30):
and it's a certain style of howwe cut the meat. It's usually pretty
thin and then we just do aquick grill on it. Not too dissimilar
to what you would experience maybe Creanbarbecue or something like that. But we
really honor the presentation than how wecut the meat. And the quality of

(18:52):
the meat that we use is veryimportant to us, so we use the
Japanese wagu. We also have Americanwagu, but all of our meat is
wagi beef, which is highly marbledand high quality meat that we really shouldn't
be over cooked, really should notbe So you know a lot of the

(19:12):
Korean barbecue places, you know thatyou'll cook yourself, but at niqu X,
we the servers will be or achef will be rilling each cut of
meat and explaining the difference between eachof the cuts where that cut came from.
So we kind of explore more intoyaki niku cuisine, but we kind

(19:34):
of throw a contemporary twist on itwhere it's not all traditional sauces. You
know, you go to Japan andeverything is delicious, but more or less
you'll have the same flavors over andover, just presented a little bit differently.
Of course there's exceptions, but whatwe try to do at Niku X
is kind of blending a little bitmore of my background as a chef and

(20:00):
where I've traveled around the world.So when I was a kid, my
dad used to take me out ofschool for weeks, sometimes months at a
time and would tell my teachers,you know, we're going to go on
a trip, and he's going tolearn a lot more with me than he
is with you. That's a greatdad right there. Yeah, Because I
mean I get the system at all, but oftentimes when a parent knows that

(20:22):
a child learns differently, you know, he had your number and obviously worked
right, and so you know,that's how I first got into food,
because we're exploring so many different cultures. And my dad worked for United Airlines,
so we could travel all the time, and and just the memories from
my childhood of being in all thesedifferent places, and then later on in

(20:45):
life going to culinary school, allthis energy came back to me and then
I started using that as part ofthe food. So that's part of me.
So we do any thing from Frenchtechniques, serving fo gras on top
of wagu with a blueberry guest streak. These are all kind of French techniques

(21:07):
um, but some Italian influence aswell. We have a Chimney cherry sauce
um, which is a South Americansauce that you only put on steak,
but we use umeboshi in it,which is a Japanese pickled plum. So
we kind of have this um interestingcombination of different cultures. How would you

(21:29):
describe that plum in flavor? It'sextremely sour and salty and it's got it
almost like a fermented taste to itbecause it is aged uh and so that
becomes the any dish that we create. There's some components that you're trying to

(21:49):
flavor, profiles that you're trying tobring out. Yeah, whether you want
to, the goal is either umamior uh, a savory saltiness, sweetness,
peppery, you know, kind ofexperiment with all these different things and
combine it into one meal where wefeel like we've created something that is really

(22:11):
enjoyable. Yeah, those are theflavors were designed to eat. Our palate
once desires those things. And Itry and tell people that salt is not
bad. Over use of salt canbe bad, but salt is the only
salty tasting thing on the planet,and we're designed to have salts, right,
and salt is not necessarily a flavoron its own, but it's a

(22:32):
flavor enhancer. Sure, it bringsout all the goodness in anything that you're
trying to make. So it's it'sa careful balance, of course, because
people experience salt in different ways.Sure, So that's you know, it's
always tricky when trying to serve alarge number of people, and it's them
all happy. I'm all happy,And that balance is My mom had seven

(22:55):
kids. I often wondered how shemade us all happy. Stick Around will
be back with more. We'll talkmore about the food and we'll get our
hands on some of these treats thatwe're brought in as well that are absolutely
stunning to look at and we'll talkmore about Niko X in Los Angeles and
find out more about Chef Shin andhis interpretations of these different flavors and now

(23:19):
they work together. I just lovethe combination. You can see it right
here on the plate. I'll putsome pictures up shortly as well, So
go no where. You're listening tothe Fork Report with Nil Savedra on demand
from KFI Amzi forty. Thanks fortuning in to the Fork Report. I'm
your well fed host, Nil Savadrahad day you do. Thanks for hanging
out today. Don't forget. You'vegot Twala Sharpe coming up at five o'clock

(23:41):
with so Cal Saturday. And thenyou have Steve Gregory who had bumped into
in the garage today pulling in andhe was pulling out and going to work
on a story. Jacob was withhim and I think they're then they had
drone in hand, So whatever they'redoing is going to be a big one.
You could tell by the smiles ontheir face. But Steve Gregory and

(24:03):
unsolved it is. It is thebeginning of the new season, I believe
tonight at seven o'clock, so stickaround for that as well. Right now,
where chatting. You know. It'sthe different cuisine we have in Los
Angeles is fantastic. The crazy thingis Los Angeles is not as tightly grouped
as New York, for instance,where you can go to certain areas and

(24:26):
find everything you want right there.So we like to tell you about places
that are worth taking the time tofind where they are and finding out more
about it. Chef Shin is withus today as we're talking about his restaurant,
fairly new about a year or soold, a little little under a
year, and the name is NikoNiku x Niku x ni Kux dot com,

(24:52):
Nikux dot com and the combinations herenow, they just moved the the
food to make sure everyone gets ataste of it. It is so beautiful
and I'm going to put pictures up. But unfortunately, in the place I
am with my kidney transplant, I'mstill not allowed to eat raw things.

(25:14):
And add a raw quail's egg onthere. Yeah, it's a it's a
beef tartar with a quagg. Thequaileg was cured in a soye subie or
something. Oh, so you saltcured it yectually. It's slightly cured.
It's still raw in the center.So I was kicking myself looking at that
because I love tartars. I lovebeef tartar and to see that kind of

(25:38):
presentation, explain walk people through itum and the importance of doing these raw
ingredients for something like that. Yeah, well, we like to kind of
show different preparations of wage. Weare Wagga focused restaurants, so we do
all kinds from them. Obviously rawcooked tomahawk presentation where we put whiskey on

(26:03):
it and flambay it. So theraw is just the one biter that is
in a little tartlet shell which wemake and then we put not only the
beef, the boggy beef, butwe have our own yuki niku sauce it's
called it's a barbecue sauce essentially thatwe coat it with and then a quayle

(26:27):
on top, which makes it reallycreamy. So so we're kind of playing
around with the different textures. We'vegot the really crispiness of the tart shell
and then of course the texture ofthe beef, and then the creaming is
from the and it looked like adecent grind. It wasn't like a super
thin grind wasn't a heavy grind ofthe beef. It was somewhere in between.

(26:48):
Yeah, we don't grind it,per se. We hand cut it.
So you're killing me worse. Allthese techniques are making it worse.
Yeah, so yeah, most ofso all of our yuki niku, with
the exception of one that's sliced,is we hand cut everything, which you
know, it makes it a challengebecause you know, we have to have
these perfect cuts for our presentation,and we're one hundred and sixty seat restaurant,

(27:14):
so it requires a lot of coordinationwith our team. So we have
a great team that we work with, and it took a while to get
to the point where everyone's trained up. And so my girlfriend I work with.
Her name's Liga, she's the chefde cuisine there. So we work
hand in hand training the teams andso we kind of work together and recruiting

(27:37):
the people and getting them to thestandard that we're looking for. All I
can imagine in my head with twochefs living together is going home and having
cheese and crackers because you're both tootired. Yeah, we're too tired.
So we go we go get tacos, like get the three nights out of
the way. Every chef it's like, you don't want to see what they
eat at home because they're tigue.They just want something to then go to

(28:02):
bed where it's a Korean barbecue isa big one because they're all open still
by the ten that we leave there, and we do have some pretty great
Korean barbecue. We did Los Angeles. We're kind of spoiled. This uh
Tomahawk tasting menu looks great. I'mgoing to just encourage people to go to
niku x dot com, ni kuxdot com, ni kux dot com Special

(28:26):
Occasions, wanting to push your yourlevel of tasting. You're eating, learning
culture through food, all these things. This menu just go check it out.
The top shelf cuts and style.You're looking at that evenly consistent marbling
that almost makes it pink because ofit's so even, not that fattiness on

(28:48):
the outside, but just throughout evenlyplaced. It really looks stunning and I
can't wait to get my uh butin their wegu oxtail pot stickers. I'm
gonna slap your face roasted bone marrow. This really looks like very well thought
out and a special menu. Yeah, we're one of the few places I

(29:08):
think in terms of why we usealmost all parts of the cow, so
we find uses. You know,the oxtail, we have about seven or
eight different Yekiku cuts, um,and we're just using all the trim in
different preparations and our donal by ricefor example, so we try and use
the entire animal. Wow. Justvery impressive and what a pleasure to meet

(29:32):
you. And I will get inthere Chef Shin Thompson and niku X niku
X dot com, n i ku X dot com. Check it out
and you know see what I'm talkingabout there will they're there Wilsher Grand Center,
nine hundred Willsher Boulevard, Suite twotwelve, and check them out.
Find out more about this because thisis a very special place. It was
lovely to meet you, great tomeet you. Thank you, my pleasure.

(29:56):
It is the Folk Report. I'mNeil Savedra. This is KFI and
KOs THHD two Los Angeles, OrangeCounty. You've been listening to the FOURK
Report. You can always hear uslive on kf I AM six forty two
to five pm on Saturday and anytimeon demand on the iHeartRadio APPUM