Inside the Kim's Circle of Trust: Week of November 27: Poke & Shiso... Main Ingredients For My Can Of Whoop Ass

Every year, our good friends, the Whitemans (picture on left: Brandon, Max, Shannon) host a holiday competition party. In the past, it had been an ongoing gingerbread house making contest between boys versus girls. The history of the gingerbread house contest is riddled with foul play and unfair judging. Last year, we finally took the judging to the streets of downtown Burlingame and had strangers cast their votes. Needless to say, it was a landslide victory for the boys. The people had spoken!

Last years Gingerbread House contest victory

This year, the Whitemans decided to mix things up a bit and announced a new challenge… an individual cook/bake off. The rules were simple. Everyone would bring either an appetizer or a dessert to share with everyone. And at the end, everyone would vote for 1 winner (you couldn’t vote for yourself… I found this out later after I voted for myself). Andrea and I welcomed this challenge and eagerly awaited our opportunity to display our cooking/baking prowess. It was pretty clear from early on that Andrea would enter her dessert while I took on an appetizer. And after much debate and soul searching, we both came up with our entry recipes. Andrea chose to make her famous Galaktoboureko and I elected to make an Ahi Poke. Galaktoboureko is also known as Greek Milk Pie but let me tell you, it should be called Butter Pie instead. Ahi Poke is a simple Hawaiian dish Andrea and I fell in love with at Sensei Sushi Restaurant in Maui. It’s raw marinated Ahi tuna salad or as Andrea likes to call it “Pure Goodness”.

Early Saturday morning, we finished our shopping for the ingredients that would be paramount for a Kim victory. We were supremely confident of a win. The only question was whether Andrea or I will be #1. Living in Oakland, we are very fortunate to have the diversity to find any cooking ingredient imaginable. We started off at Piedmont Grocery and got most of the items. We had to make a couple of extra stops for the specialty secret-weapon items. We got our fresh sushi grade Ahi from Hapuku Fish Shop and some Korean Shiso leaves (kkae nnip in Korean) from Koreana Plaza. With all our grocery bags filled, we came home and began the creation of our respective master pieces. With Andrea’s Galaktoboureko (try saying that 3 times real fast, or even saying it once real slow), the coolest part of making it was when Andrea pulled the pie out of the oven and poured the sugar syrup into the pie. The syrup boiled and sizzled as it seeped its way through the buttered layers of filo (you gain weight just thinking about it). Not to be outdone, I battered the Shiso leaves and deep fried them nice and crispy to make edible serving plates for my Ahi Poke.

My beautiful Ahi Poke with deep fried Shiso leaves

With our tasty creations in hand, we arrived at the Whitemans. The competition was fierce. From Laura’s Baked Artichoke Dip, to Sharron’s Crackers with Wasabi Cream and Shrimp, to Abby’s Tennessee Pumpkin Square, to name a few, everyone had brought their A-game or at least they tried. In life, we consider ourselves to be very blessed when we find ourselves in that rare moment where we shine brightly above all the others. And we celebrate those moments as great human achievements… The Catch, Sir Edmund Hillary’s Ascent of Mt. Everest and The Breaking of the Sound Barrier to name a few. Some people search their whole lives for that one moment. Friends, you all know me as the down-to-earth, humble, modest good person. So I say this with sincere humility…

I’M NUMBER ONE!!!

Please, it wasn’t even close. By an almost unanimous vote, I crushed the Tennessee Pumpkin Square, stomped on the Artichoke Dip, splattered the Galaktoboureko and chewed up Mike’s Chicken Wings. I’ve got one thing to say for the losers in the competition… YOU GOT SERVED!!! (except to my sweet wife I say, you got robbed… that crappy fish wasn’t even cooked!)

Brandon anouncing the winner... ME!

For being crowned the Champion, I was presented with the magnificent Silver Spoon Trophy. I’m toying with several ideas for displaying the Silver Spoon. I could go with the more traditional approach by bronzing and mounting the Spoon with the engraving “Master Chef Extraordinaire” or I could go with a non-traditional approach and attach the Spoon to a fat necklace as the center piece so I could wear it around for all to jealously admire. Any suggestions? One final thought, you heard it here; I plan on a 3-pete, then retiring from the competition and going into the Hall of Fame on top!

My Competition (aka Losers)