Love for the Locals: Cornerstone Sushi-Ya

You may have noticed that I've been posting more in my cooking segment, and that's because I generally avoid going out to eat to save on costs. However, in order to try and maintain somewhat of a social life, I have gone to a few eateries here in London, Ontario.

Even though I've only been there thrice, I have decided that Cornerstone Sushi Ya (440 Clarence Street, London, ON) is my go-to place for a Japanese fix. It's a tiny shop that seats about 20, completely owned and operated by the sweetest Japanese gentleman and his wife. It's close to a kind of shady area in downtown London, but it's not so bad if you have company for dinner. (I've learned that every day from about 5pm, all the "interesting" people come out for basically a regular lurking routine and also occupy the only park in downtown -  just because.) They are open Monday through Saturday from 4:30-9pm, and in addition, Monday through Friday for lunch from 11:30am-2:30pm. They also do takeout~ ;)

Such a tiny place, but it's really cute and cozy inside.

Cornerstone Sushi Ya is actually right next door to a bigger red building housing a Japanese fusion bistro, but it looks like it'd be expensive. From the outside, it doesn't look like much, but when you step inside, you get a nice feel of a cozy little Japanese restaurant complemented with the aroma of sushi rice subtly wafting around in the air.

This was from my most recent visit with my roommate. We opted for a sushi dinner before I headed back home for the holidays, and I knew just the place. It's such a snug little shop with only a few seats at the sushi bar, and less than 10 tables in the main seating area.

The sushi bar, and hallway leading into the restaurant.

Tables in the main seating area, up the steps.

I came for dinner with my dad initially when he was helping me move here, and vowed to return. I've been back twice since then, with one of my classmates, and then with my roommate, and the lovely couple that runs the entire operation was just as warm and welcoming as on my first visit.

The restaurant definitely caters to the general London population with an entirely English menu. However, one notable characteristic of the menu was that it came accompanied with a small book containing photos corresponding to each item in the menu so that you would know exactly what you would be getting.

The quality of the fish - especially the sashimi - was to my pleasant surprise, actually quite decent! It was visibly fresh, and beautifully presented. Earlier last month, another colleague in my program arranged for a group dinner at an All You Can Eat (AYCE) sushi place where the food was below average even for AYCE. Cornerstone Sushi-Ya is a way better option.

On my first visit, I had #23, the Udon Bento Special. It came with a choice of salad or kimchi, with a bowl of udon noodle soup, and 8 pieces of California maki, all for about $10. There was also complimentary edamame :)

For the next 2 visits, I actually ordered what my dad got when he came with me, and probably one of the better deals there - #22, the Sashimi Box Bento Special. It comes with miso soup, 8 pieces of California maki with a special sauce, 2 gyoza, salad, an onigiri, and 12 pieces of assorted sashimi (tuna, hamachi, salmon, and the white one I still can't figure out). All for about $14. Plus, complimentary edamame :)

On my most recent visit with my roommate, we decided to also order a Rainbow Roll, thinking that we might not have enough food. But alas, we were conquered by the food. Instead of giving us one of those generic styrofoam take-out boxes, the hostess/udon/waitress lady (I wish I asked for her name...) gave us one of these boxes, so that our leftovers ended up looking like a storebought sushi platter.

As you may have noticed, I love supporting smaller independent businesses, especially if they turn out to be positive experiences. For those in London, Ontario or those planning to visit sometime in the future, I would definitely recommend a try at Cornerstone Sushi Ya to satisfy your Japanese food cravings!

-M

B-b-b-baking: Kurowa-san?

[I'd been putting this entry off for quite a while, even though it was started during the Thanksgiving break. I finally managed to get all the pictures in, so enjoy!]

Because I really like bread, P and I started watching this bread-inspired anime over the summer called 焼きたて!! ジャぱん / "Yakitate!! Japan". Spoiler alert - It's about this boy who has magically warm hands that give him the ability to make amazing bread. Yes, we watched that. It's actually quite awesome, but filled with lame puns throughout, making it very fitting for the two of us. The boy has spent some time making numerous kinds of bread through his genius talent, but is sheltered from the professional baking world to such an extent that he doesn't know what "naan" or "croissants" are, even though he's made a superb rendition of them. There was one episode devoted to croissants (P's vice), hence the title. Yep.

Things I have learned today about croissants:
- The process of making croissants is very laborious. When I stacked all of the work together, it still took me 2 days to complete. Once you have the dough, all you have to do is shape and bake them, but making the dough is a LOT of work.
- There is a LOT of butter in croissants. Croissants are made of one bread dough, and 1 whackload of butter that is just rolled flat, and incorporated into the dough through folding. It's ridiculous.
- That being said, you should not be lazy, and just throw the whole block of 2 cups of butter into the mix. It makes a difference. Do you get delicious, buttery croissants? Yes, you do, BUT you also feel like dying because you just consumed a "food" item with that much butter in it. (Immediately after baking the first batch of croissants - thank goodness we didn't bake all 13 [i.e. a baker's dozen]... - P and I proceeded to take a nap for about an hour to sleep off the butter. It was wonderful but kind of terrible at the same time.) Looking at the recipe from How Sweet Eats, she used 1 1/2 cups of butter which is 3/4 of the block. For the love of all that is good, use 1 1/2 cups of butter, or even 1 cup for that matter. Laziness will get you nowhere. I've been to nowhere and it is not a happy place. So, basically, if the recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of butter, don't get lazy and throw the whole miserable block in. *end rant*
- Since you basically roll the croissant dough triangles into croissants, it is easy to fill them with anything that you like. I went through some food blogs before attempting this ridiculous task. How Sweet It Is made a combination of croissants with chocolate, cinnamon sugar, and pumpkin cream cheese croissants, which looked wonderful as pictured here.

And without further ado, here are my masterpieces as captured by my Samsung Galaxy SII and P's fancy schmancy camera...

Rolling out butter has to be one of the strangest things I've done. Performed with my refrigerated bottle of elderflower water of course. It kind of makes me cringe knowing that THAT much butter goes into a single batch of croissants, but not really. It's probably half of that, you know, if you aren't lazy and naively decide to roll the whole block. Please learn from my mistake.

The first of 4 folds...You can still see the ridiculous amount of butter that I just folded inside. :S

Rolling pins would probably make for a more even rectangle, but oh well. I learned later, than isosceles triangles are actually better to use, but you can fix this by rolling them out into taller triangles before shaping.

The lovely little packages of proscuitto and brie. Mmmm...

The collection of awkwardly shaped croissants going into the fridge. 

It saddens me how the two most beautiful croissants were shaped by P, and the remaining monstrosities were mine :(

A result of P's beautiful croissant folding technique.

Nom-tastic brunch consisting of freshly baked croissants, and P's hashbrowns and fried egg :)

My first batch of croissants was somewhat successful. They came out like croissants (sort of) and tasted so buttery, and the ones with proscuitto-wrapped brie came with packages of smooth, savoury goodness...

Kurowa-sans (Adapted from Williams-Sonoma & How Sweet Eats)
*Makes 16 croissants*
Dough:
1 package active dry yeast
2 Tbsp white granulated sugar
1 tsp table salt
3 Tbsp warm water
1-1 1/2 cups butter (Do not use 2 cups of butter unless you are prepared to face near death.)
1 cup whole milk (You can probably use other kinds of milk, but you're already going to use that much butter, so go big or go home?)
Extra flour for folding

Egg wash:
1 egg
1 tsp whole milk

Optional:
Thinly sliced proscuitto
Brie cheese

1. In a small bowl, combine yeast, sugar, and warm water, and set aside for 10 minutes or until it becomes foamy.
2. In a medium sized bowl, add flour, salt, whole milk, and yeast mixture until just combined.
3. On a floured surface, roll out the dough mixture into about the length and width of a cookie sheet. (To make it easier, I also placed it on a cookie sheet afterwards) Cover in plastic wrap to seal in moisture, and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
4. Place a cookie sheet sized piece of plastic wrap on your surface. Carefully roll out your butter into a flat board, about 1/3 the size of the dough rectangle you created earlier.
5. Remove the dough from the fridge, and remove the plastic wrap from the flattened butter, placing the butter in the center of your dough rectangle.
6. Fold each side of the croissant dough over the butter to envelop it. Carefully press down the dough with a rolling pin (or refrigerated glass bottle of sparkling soda) until it is about the length and width of a cookie sheet.
7. Carefully fold each side of the dough to cover the center third of dough again, and press down the dough, and roll it out to the length and width of a cookie sheet. Cover the dough with plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
8. Repeat step 7 at least 3 more times.
9. After completing at least 4 folds with 1 hour refrigerated breaks in between each fold, refrigerate the dough overnight.
10. Preheat your oven to 425 F. Remove the dough from the fridge, and on a floured surface, slice the dough into 8 relatively equal squares/rectangles. Slice each of the squares diagonally to create 16 triangles.
11. While shaping each individual croissant, you may want to roll the triangles flatter. From my experience this time around, you are better off having Start from the shortest end of the triangle, and roll tightly up towards the pointed tip, until you have a croissant shape.
12. For a proscuitto-brie croissant, slice a small slab of brie cheese, and roll it inside a strip of proscruitto. When shaping the croissant, place the proscuitto-brie "package" at the short flat end of the triangle, and roll it inside your croissant. (I highly recommend doing this to at least some of your croissants! It is quite tasty :D)
13. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and place about 6-8 croissants on each pan with a few inches in between them for space to rise and expand.
14. Brush with an egg wash, so that they become a lovely shade of golden-brown after being baked.
15. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.
16. Remove and serve right away for breakfast or brunch or whenever you feel like devouring the buttery goodness. :)

Below is a time-lapse series of photos as I very attentively watched the croissants rise and bake in the oven. It looks much cooler in real life rather than through the poor quality lens of my phone camera.

After 5 min...

10 min...

15 min...

20 min...

Upon completing the assembly of 16 croissants, I took to freezing them in ziploc bags for later use. That way, I would just have to thaw them overnight in the fridge, and bake them as needed. It would not have been wise to consume 2 cups of butter between the two of us in one sitting, anyways. After a day of lazing around, due to the wrath of buttery food coma, P showed me these videos on YouTube of just bakery work. It's the passion of the baker that drives you to watch the videos to the end. Boy, is bakery work labourious or what? I felt inspired to give the croissants another try.

After having a batch of 6 croissants thaw in the fridge overnight, I took to re-rolling them in the morning so that we could enjoy them for lunch.

Second batch? Much better.

So yes, guys...homemade croissants are possible! Even in a student residence kitchen! So you can do it! In total, it was a 2-day process for me, but they look as lovely as they smell while rising in the oven :)

-M