World Chef: Silk Road travels inspire LA"s Hinoki & the Bird

1 of 2. Chef and owner of the restaurant Hinoki & the Bird David Myers (R) poses with chef Kuniko Yagi in the restaurant with one of their signature dishes, hinoki scented black cod, sweet potatoes and pistachios in Los Angeles April 19, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Fred Prouser

By Lisa Baertlein

LOS ANGELES | Tue Jul 16, 2013 4:18am EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The exotic, earthy aroma from smoking sheets of smoldering hinoki wood hovering over exquisite black cod is the first hint that diners at celebrated chef David Myers’ newest restaurant are in for a culinary adventure.

Hinoki & the Bird, the Japanophile chef’s Silk Road-inspired restaurant, borrows heavily from the travels of Myers and Executive Chef Kuniko Yagi, who left banking a decade ago and worked her way up from the kitchen’s lowest rungs to her current, globe-trotting career.

The sleekly casual eatery, located near some of Los Angeles’ top talent agencies, is a departure from Sona, Myers’ elegant, Michelin one-star restaurant that opened in 2002 – a year before Food & Wine magazine bestowed on him a prestigious “Best New Chef” award.

After Sona closed in 2010, Myers and his executive chef hit the road – eating, tweeting and picking up inspiration throughout Asia.

Their journeys inform dishes such as spicy sambal skate wing, drunken duck breast and hinoki-scented black cod, the head-turning dish referenced earlier.

The telegenic duo, who are familiar to fans of foodie shows such as “Top Chef” and “Iron Chef America,” spoke with Reuters about how travel informed their careers and their latest project.

Q: David, what was the inspiration for Hinoki & the Bird’s name?

A: Hinoki is an incredible cypress tree in Japan that has the most wonderful aroma. The bird component was to capture the essence of travel and how important travel is to the creative process. It’s about the connection from California to Japan. We chronicle the bird’s travel and bring it into the menu.

Q: David, what is your vision for Hinoki & the Bird?

A: I think California is the gateway to Asia. The idea is to showcase the California bounty and the scent of the Silk Road. The flavors are light, vibrant and healthy. You can come in and eat several different things and you’re not feeling heavy. You’re feeling sharp and you’re ready to go the next day. I’ve only felt that in Asia – where you can eat a lot and drink a lot and feel great. The food of Southeast Asia is nothing but drinking food – it’s about going around having beers and going to the next place.

Q: David, which dish on Hinoki & the Bird’s menu best illustrates how your travels through Southeast Asia have influenced your food?

A: The sambal skate wing. That’s our version of a barbecue skate wing from a hawker’s stand in Singapore. That’s the classic hawker stand dish.

Q: Kuniko, what inspired you to leave banking and become a chef?

A: I wanted to make sure I could have a job anywhere in the world. I thought, maybe if I can cook really well I can go anywhere in the world and be able to have a job. (In the beginning) I wasn’t able to speak English much – but I thought I could mimic what people in the kitchen do.

Q: Kuniko, what advice would you give someone who makes a similar career leap?

A: Be humble about who you want to be. Nothing good happens in a year. I’ve been doing this for 10 years already. I started late. I was patient, and I had a couple of times where I wondered if I made the right choice.

Drunken Duck Breast

1/2 cup sake kasu (sake lees, a yeast by-product of sake making)

1 cup warm water

2 duck breasts

Salt & black pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

In a small pot, place sake kasu and warm water and whisk over low heat until broken down to a loose texture. Remove from heat and let cool.

Score duck skin in a cross-hatch pattern and season with salt and pepper on both sides.

Cover the breasts with the sake kasu and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rest in the refrigerator for one hour.

Wash sake kasu off from duck breast and place the duck skin side down in a sauté pan over low heat, being careful not to burn. Render the skin from the breast, discarding the fat as you go.

When the skin has a golden brown color, place the breast in the oven for 7 minutes, skin side up, for medium rare.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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Reuters: Lifestyle

World Chef: Silk Road travels inspire LA"s Hinoki & the Bird

Serengeti, a foutain of wildlife

The best of Serengeti

The Serengeti is among the main Tanzania\’s Natural Parks, being one of the most engaging resources for Safaris in the world. The name Serengeti is an estimation of the word employed by the Maasai to describe the area.

The Serengeti Parkcovers 14,763 km2, but its region is just incredible. Two World Heritage Sites and two Ecosphere Reserves have been revealed in the 30,000 km2 region thatincorporates the Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Maswa Game Reserve, the Loliondo, Grumeti and Ikorongo Controlled Areas and the Maasai Mara Countrywide Reserve in Kenya.

All Tanzania\’s Countrywide Parks make up some 14% of the country's land area, being wellknown that Tanzania has lovely nature reserves rich in animal life. The Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and the Maasai MaraGame Reserve across the border in Kenya, protect the greatest and most varied collection of earthly animal life on earth. These spaces are one of the last great migratory systems still untouched that can be noted by the visitors.

Serengeti: animals, plants and much more

The essential features of climate, vegetation and fauna have hardly modified in the past million years, being its ecology one of the very oldest all around the globe. TheWildebeest travel thru a variety of parks, reserves and protected areas andthrough a variety of habitat.

Human beings made an appearance in Olduvai Gorge 2,000,000 years ago. Some patterns of life, modification, death and migration are very old here. Visitors can explore the different forms of vegetation and landscapes of the Serengeti ecosystem and meet some inhabitants.

Safaris in Serengeti

Tourism sub-structure have developed well and two new hostels and luxury, beguiling camps conforming to \’international \’ standards have opened in the area in the last year. Over 90,000 tourists visit the Park each year.

Safari is a Swahili word. It implies \”journey\”, but in English language and many other languages, the meaning has become a synonyme for a wildlife viewing adventure in the African bush. \’To go on safari \’ In Tanzania is all an experience in the middle of the nature.

Tanzania: a really stable country

Tanzania politically has been among the most stable African nations. In regard to safety, both for its own citizens and for tourists, it is well before its more economically advanced neighbours. Tourism increased especially in the last years, becoming one of the main industries in the country, and this sector supplies the country an interesting average of its incomes. Online Marketing campaigns have been developed and here there is its success.

The migration, a magnificent wonderful in Africa

Between the best attractives of Serengetti can be found the migration, for which Serengeti is maybe most renowned.

Over a million wildebeest and about 200,000 zebras flow south from the northern hills to the southern plains. The reason is that they are looking for the rains each October and November, and then swirl west and north after the long rains in April, May and June.

The traditional instinct to move that no drought is so strong that risks, gorge or crocodile plagued river can hold them back.

http://www.safaripark.es has more information about Tanzania in Spanish

Serengeti, a foutain of wildlife