Cal Shabu * Santa Monica

The Inception of a "Japanese" restaurant

Archive for the tag “shabu”

Shabu Test Kitchen. Possible Happy Hour Appetizers?!

OK, so shabu-shabu can get a little monotonous in the kitchen, so of course what else do we do, but start our own little Cal Shabu Test Kitchen. We have limited cooking utensils, but its almost jailhouse style culinary cuisine… but way better I’m sure… Check these out…
IMG_8771Our first attempt at sushi rolls… Salmon, teriyaki, green onions, Sriracha and a bunch of other things! Not Bad for a first attempt, but we’re not a sushi restaurant. So lets see what else we can come up with…

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Baked Salmon Skin Rolls with pink garlic, Japanese mayo, spicy teriyaki and homemade salmon poke. Yummy!!!! But still its sushi… haha.. back to the test kitchen…

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So we thought maybe we should try a beef dish, so we sliced up some jalapenos, made some cheater sushi rice, marinated onions in shichimi and chili oil, added a small flamed piece of rib eye, a little mayo, sriracha, and julienned spinach and carrots. Not bad! But for some reason we were still obsessed with the salmon…

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Slice of cucumber, sushi rice ball with a seared piece of salmon, seasoned with our own house shichimi togarashi and a splash of spicy teriyaki. Now I’m getting hungry! Last but not least, one more salmon tester… Amazing!

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And on that note, I’m going to make some appetizers right now! Email us if you think we should start trying some of these in the restaurant. Cheers!!

Shabu-Shabu and Drafty Beer Updates!!

Our utmost apologies once again for going on an unexpected hiatus from updating our blog. Since our last entry, this is whats been going on: Our logo will be updated soon, our website has been temporarily updated, we’ve changed some of our rotating beers, we’ve embarked on our first ever google advertising campaign, we’ve added another optional ingredient to our goma sauce, we’ve added a garage parking sign, we’ve changed some of our smaller art pieces, we’ve made our first Cal Shabu iron-on patches, we’ve made our first Cal Shabu promotional video, and we’re actually closing in on our 1 Year Anniversary!!!

So our website has not been updated for over a decade! The interweb has changed quite a bit since the late 90′s and it was long overdue for an overhaul. We’re still fine tweaking our updated logo, but here’s our placeholder for the moment.

Beer, beer, beer… Sorry for not doing an update sooner. Posting our beer list on the blog seems the most natural thing to do, and I’m retarded for not doing it sooner. I think all of our beers are 90+ pointers on beer advocate, with the exception of one. Enjoy!

DRAFT:

  • Allagash White
  • Cismontane Citizen Lager
  • Deschutes Black Butte
  • Green Flash West Coast IPA
  • Green Flash Saison Diego
  • Strand 24th St. Pale Ale

BOTTLED:

  • Hitachino Nest White Ale
  • Asahi Black
  • Orion

Onto our newest sauce addition; Freshly ground roasted black and white sesame seeds. This just completes the goma’s flavor profile. Ask for it when you get your hot drops!

Our parking signage is kind of a make-shift one we made with our vinyl plotter. For those who don’t know yet, we have underground spaces which can be accessed from the alley between 9th and 10th streets. Once you enter the alley, you’ll see the sign below directing you into a parking garage. For the time being as well, the Longevity karate studio has moved, and all of their marked spaces are available for parking until a new tenant comes in.

We’ve been looking for the right group of artists to do something special for the outside face of our ventilation hoods, and we’re close, but for now we got a couple new smaller pieces in. Fernando over at Universal Art Gallery has been amazing in helping us with the framing process. This orange/silver aluminum frame couldn’t be any more perfect for the simple and poppy Phil Lumbang piece. You can check out some of Phil’s earlier work here.

The second piece is a limited print released by Dissizit in 2011 with all proceeds going towards the Japan relief efforts. The artist is Slick.

When I first saw this print, not only was the overall visual cool, but I’m a sucker for nostalgia and childhood references. Every time I look at this little character, I’m reminded of Cool Spot, the 7-Up mascot from the 90′s. Well, at least a Japanese version.

In the name of marketing and branding, we also made one run of small iron-on patches. We thought they turned out pretty cool, and made them in 2 color combos: Charcoal/Yellow and Purple/Teal. If you’re one of our regulars and want to represent, let us know when you come in!

I went a little crazy in the beginning, but I’m just really happy to be able to finally represent Cal Shabu with a little style.

On that final note, its time for some shuteye and I’ll leave you with a photo of my cat Charlie’s least guilty face…

Open, open, open Memorial Monday!!!

We are open Monday! Come get some shabu-shabu and some watermelon shochu love! Have a great last day of the weekend!

2 New Ways to get BUZZED @ Cal Shabu Santa Monica!!! Memorial Weekend Drunks!!

Our apologies for the long hiatus from blogging, we haven’t forgotten!! We’ve been making some new drinks for our menu, and what better weekend than Memorial weekend to unload our newest, highest-alcohol-content-we-can-serve, fresh-squeezed watermelon shochu delight!! For those who don’t know exactly what shochu is, its basically a magical elixir for our lowly beer and wine license. It’s the closest thing to vodka that we can serve, distilled like sake and with a much more neutral and vodka-like flavor than sake; it makes shochu one of the best mixers. It can be, and is drunken with craploads of different things. Not only did we get a couple new drinks, but we made ourselves some blackboard signage and a sandwich board which we’re learning how to draw on with chaulk.

We’re getting there slowly..

Happy Memorial Day!!! Deal Ends after Monday dinner!

Have a great weekend!!

So the final product turned out halfway decent!

After a few awkwardly printed shirts, we finally came out with something kinda ok.

Purple, Charcoal, and our kinda version of pink.

Teal & Purple.

The crew.

New Tees for the girls!!

Something we’ve always wanted to do is make our own tees. We’ve gone through numerous print shops, which have been great to us, but experimentation costs money. So with what would have cost us a couple of runs worth of shirt printing, we decided to use Len’s press, and bought ourselves some screens, inks, and a flash heater. We were all set to becoming big tee shirt printers!!!

We started with tidying up the garage a bit, and then laid our our inks on our makeshift table. Too many chemicals!! After running a bunch of shirts, we decided that we would soon be swapping our plastisol ink for more environmentally friendly water based eco-inks. But for now we really like the vibrance that only plastisol can bring, so we’ll knock out a few more to keep our servers clothed, and hopefully sell a few too.

Since we needed a light safe place to store our unexposed screens, I decided to build a little makeshift storage darkroom out of left over pvc pipe I’d had laying around for the last 4 years from my now completed sprinkler project. I was so excited to have found a use for my clutter!!! We taped a bunch of rosin paper around it, and voila!!! We had ourselves a somewhat fragile darkroom.

We were finally ready to start printing, well almost. We finished applying our photo emulsion to the screens, cured them in our little light safe area, and were finally ready to expose them. Once exposed, we setup our press, and were ecstatic to print our first tee ever!!

Everything looked in place and kind of professional! At least thats what we wanted to tell ourselves.

We mix our inks, because out of the tub colors were just not for us. Except for the teal once we used it, but you’ll see that later.

Anthony making our signature “shabu charcoal”.

I finally get to lay one out. Hopefully these all turn out good!!!

If you still don’t know where we’re located, our sign is finally up!

So, after uhh…. 5 months?? Give or take maybe a month or 2… We finally have our sign!!!! But wait, to continue our slew of difficulties, the sign may look complete… but upon closer inspection, problems abound. Lets look at the good first.

So it started out promising, and it was looking pretty slick.

Onto the details. Do you see anything wrong with the pic below?

If you noticed the little pinholes of light to the right of the signage… they’re actually called weepholes, and are meant to be facing downward so that the excess rainwater can drain out of the lettering. Since we never intended our sign to be oriented sideways, this was simply an unacceptable oversight. Lets see what the signage company does to right the wrong.

And, on the opposite side of the weepholes, are these ugly, mandatory UL stickers, which are only allowed to be moved or removed by the fabricator, or we get fined some silly amount of money. The stickers and sharpie writing doesn’t really go with our motif. Its been another 2 weeks now since the sign has been installed, and still no corrections from the signage company. We’re still waiting………..

Omaka Springs and Kaiken: Our new Sauvignon Blanc and Malbec!

So, we’re not just beer and sake lovers, but we know we have an obligation to our wine loving crowd as well. These are the first additions to our wine list. We’ve been solicited by so many wine distributors and manufacturers, but almost every time, we’re met with a lackluster tasting, and nothing of significant impression.

This time around was a bit different. Fred, one of our newest wine reps is actually a Level 3 sommelier, so we took his advice, and tried what he pulled out of his little travel tote bag. The standouts amongst the contenders were the Omaka Estates Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand and the Kaiken Malbec from Argentina.

The Omaka was an unexpected white. A little fuller than what we’d expect a sauv blanc to be, but thats part of the beauty of it. Easy to drink, but with a bit of complexity which makes each sip that much more enjoyable. This wine is actually not 100% sauv banc, but blended with 6.2% Semillon which is a relatively new grape varietal in the New Zealand wine region, but has long been used by California winemakers to blend into the sauv blancs. Yum!

Onto the Kaiken Malbec, which is an amazingly drinkable yet velvety wine. Strong blackberry notes and not too much acidity. This pairs so well with shabu. We felt very strongly that we should be trying to introduce new and unconventional wines to pair with shabu dining. Wine is such a compliment to food, and can truly elevate the dining experience. Asian food however, are so often overlooked for wine pairings. The Kaiken with the beef, simply delivers!

Patrick Mordaunt @ Formula Drift 2012!! The Cal Shabu fam can drive!!

One of our newest shabu buddies is Patrick Mordaunt, young drifter extraordinaire!! He’s baby-faced but a terror on the track, and at this past weekend’s annual Long Beach Formula Drift event, he slid his way into the top 32.

At only 21 tender years of age, this dude has been drifting since before he’s had a license, and just got picked up by APEXi to pilot their SC430. Its a trip to meet such a young guy who’s been in the industry since he was barely growing out of matchbox cars.

If you guys haven’t been been to a drift event, its worth a visit if you love cars. Since I can’t afford a custom V8 drifting beast, nor do I have the driving skills to keep other drivers safe while on the road with me, I settled for a slightly smaller version for my first drifting experience.

This is our rendition of what our Superdry/CalShabu sponsored 350Z drift car would look like. 

New Years Eve 2012 @ Cal Shabu Santa Monica!

I guess its official, we’re spending our NYE slinging meat and drinks! We’ll open almost normal business hours:

Lunch 11:30 – 2:00 and Dinner we’ll open limited hours from 5:00 – 8:00 which will lead into our New Years Bash.

Cal Shabu loyalists are always welcome to join in the festivities! Hope to see you guys soon!!

 

 

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