An Iron Chef Fans Diary

An Iron Chef Fans Diary, November, 2001

I apologize for not getting an update done for over a month.

Have I mentioned that I am working my butt off at McDonald's ? That's my friend Noma with me.

I was trying to get Pumpkin done before Halloween, but I'm a day late.

There are big surprises coming up in November.
Wooden Chef has been stolen away by Burger King !
We will be moving to the Nashville, Tennessee, area, where I have been
offered an Assistant Manager position at a franchise in Antioch.

Elaine has found a house with a much bigger Kitchen Arena where we will

be able to do the cook-alongs a lot better. I can see the TV in the dining room.

The bad news is that I might not be able to update the website until the end

of November, by the time we get settled.

Friday, November 2nd, 2001 The Seventh "New" Battle
Main Ingredient: Carrots
Cooking Style: Chinese

Iron Chef: Chen Kenichi Challenger: Takahashi Kiyoshi

I had fun with the Carrots Battle. I went to the store and bought every kind of carrot thing I could find; big carrots (of course), a bag of baby carrots, a bag of julienned carrots, cans of sliced, crinkle cut, and julienned carrots, 24 Karrot juice, 100 percent carrot juice, and two jars of carrot baby food for sauce.
I didn't have any caviar or truffles for Kiyoshi’s salad, so I stuck some anchovies and fresh mint on top, mixed some rice wine with soy sauce for dressing. OK, so the girls hate anchovies, "Papa, this fish has bones in it", but they tried it. I thought it was pretty good, but you know old woodenhead is pretty weird about strange food.

Chen's Beef, Carrots, and cut green beans stir fried and put on stir fried julienned carrots (in sesame oil) was an easy winner. It tasted Chinese, but appealed to the young ladies Western palates.

I had some left over chicken in the 'fridge, so I nuked up some soy sauce and tore off some of the dark meat and cooked it in the hot soy sauce to make it black. I drained the darkened chicken out and put it in with crinkle cut carrots in 100 percent carrot juice. I thought it was good.

I also carved a carrot pagoda, just because the challenger did. It wasn't that hard.

After the battle I was pleased that I had found a few more ways to make dishes from carrots that kids like.

I can't brag about my pagoda, I just saw that Kiyoshi's had about five layers. I peeled the biggest carrot I had with a potato peeler and carved around with the (whatchacallit) "eye" remover/ pointed thing.
I only got three dishes, the salad took no cooking and I had some beef and chicken. I am, as usual, fresh out of shark fin.

I'd wanted to try the egg rolls, but the deep fryer is packed away. We are moving to Tennessee next week, I'm trying to update my website, but FrontPage isn't helping me.
It's just easier to make a quick comment on Shaun's forum.
The computers are the last thing packed and the first thing unpacked, so I'll try to get the carrot pictures posted a.s.a.p.

Saturday, November 3rd, 2001
Main Ingredients: Cabbage

Cooking Style: Szechwan Chinese vs. Japanese
Iron Chef: Chen Kenichi Challenger: Hiromi Yamada (a chef recovering from a tragic car wreck)

Do you really only use the eight outer layers? A tough ingredient to use as an entree.

Sunday, November 4th, 2001
Main Ingredient: Pork Belly

Cooking Style: Szechwan Chinese vs. Japanese

Iron Chef: Chen Kenichi Challenger: Riyou Ju Kyo

The girls taped this one for me while I was at work.

They said they wanted me to cook several of the dishes.

Friday, November 9th, 2001 The Eighth "New" Battle
Main Ingredient: Natto (Fermented Soy Bean)
Cooking Style: Japanese
Iron Chef: Rokusaboro Michiba Challenger: Ishikawa Kuniyuki

Saturday, November 10th, 2001
Main Ingredient: Bonito (fish)

Cooking Style: French vs. Edo Style Japanese
Iron Chef: Hiroyuki Sakai Challenger: Hiromi Funatsu

A rerun from October 19th.

Sunday, November 11th, 2001
Main Ingredient: Konnyaku

Cooking Style:

Iron Chef: Chen Kenichi Challenger: Shu Kaken

I looked it up online and found this on allrecipes.com:

konnyaku

(kohn-NYAH-koo) A translucent, gelatinous cake made from the starch of a yam-like tuber known as devil's tongue. Although konnyaku has no noticeable flavor, it readily absorbs the flavors of the simmered dishes to which it's added. There are two types-shiru konnyaku, a refined pearly-white version, and kuro konnyaku, an unrefined cake with dark specks in it. Konnyaku is available in the refrigerated section of Asian markets. See also SHIRATAKI.

Monday, November 12th, 2001 The trucking company parked their trailer in back of the house.

Tuesday, November 13th, 2001 The loading crew packed our household goods into the trailer.

Wednesday, November 14th, 2001 We drove to Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Thursday, November 15th, 2001 We closed the sale on our new home.

Friday, November 16th, 2001 The trailer was delivered to the new house, the crew unloaded it.

Nothing is set up and we don't have the cable on yet.

Friday, November 16th, 2001 The New Iron Chef USA - Showdown in Las Vegas Battle 9:00 p.m. E.S.T.
Main Ingredient:
Cooking Style:
Iron Chef: Challenger:

Friday, November 16th, 2001 The Ninth "New" Battle
Main Ingredient: Ayu (Sweetfish)
Cooking Style: Japanese
Iron Chef: Rokusaboro Michiba Challenger: Hanato Katsumi

Saturday, November 17th, 2001
Main Ingredient: Duck

Cooking Style: French vs. Japanese
Iron Chef: Hiroyuki Sakai Challenger: Masatoshi Kimura

Rerun of October 26th

Sunday, November 18th, 2001
Main Ingredient: Turkey

Cooking Style: Szechwan vs. French

Iron Chef: Chen Kenichi Challenger: Jiro Kokue

Wednesday, November 21st, 2001 Woodenhead's first day at the Travel Centers of America's

Burger King on Old Hickory Road and I-24 in Antioch. Wooden Chef goes French, creating croissant breakfasts with sausage, bacon, or ham. A tour bus full of Puerto Rican tourists from New York came

in. It turned out to be the second highest volume day that the store ever had.

Thursday, November 22nd, 2001 Thanksgiving, Woodenhead is working. It's surprising how many

people get hamburgers on turkey day.

Friday, November 23rd, 2001

Iron Chef "Tired of Turkey" Marathon from Noon to Midnight, Eastern Time

Friday, November 23rd, 2001 The Tenth "New" Battle ?
Main Ingredient: ?
Cooking Style: ?
Iron Chef: Challenger:

Saturday, November 24th, 2001

4 p.m. ET 21st Century Battle

Saturday, November 24th, 2001
Main Ingredient: Carrots

Cooking Style: Szechwan Chinese vs. Japanese
Iron Chef: Chen Kenichi Challenger: Takahashi Kiyoshi

Sunday, November 25th, 2001

10 a.m. 21st Century Battle

Sunday, November 25th, 2001
Main Ingredient: Mishima Beef

Cooking Style: Szechwan Chinese vs. Japanese

Iron Chef: Chen Kenichi Challenger: Kobayashi

Thursday, November 29th, 2001 Due to ingenious scheduling, Wooden Chef is left to run the

Burger King alone from 2 to 3 p.m. It was the first of the One Man Shows. I had about two dozen

customers and made a little over eighty dollars. Now I had a taste of what it would be like for

Chef Masanobu Watabi, who operated a restaurant with no assistants. He challenged Iron Chef

Hiroyuki Sakai in the Peach Battle. Since Watabi refused to use sous chefs, Sakai also worked

alone, but Sakai said after the battle that he would never do that again.

Friday, November 30th, 2001 The Eleventh "New" Battle
Main Ingredient: Milk
Cooking Style: Szechwan Chinese vs. Japanese
Iron Chef: Chen Kenichi Challenger: Miyamoto Masahiko

DISCLAIMER: Iron Chef is the property of FujiTV and all opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of FujiTV. The author is in no way affiliated with FujiTV or Food Network. The recipes presented here are loosely based on the dishes appearing on "Iron Chef", but are in no way supposed to be accurate copies. Use of copyrighted images is covered under the fair use section of the Copyright Law. This site is not responsible for the content of any other site to which it is linked. All text and graphics are ©Copyright 2001 by Brett Pijan, unless otherwise noted.