2.28.2009

Earth Works~report!

Wow! It was a blast!


We had a great night again.


Thanks to you all!!





The pictures aren't in chronological order (cuz I was, and still am delirious!!),
but I hope they can give you a little peak of this successful event!!



Ms. Sarah with her art work! I love this cosmos painting!!



Ankoku Butoh.

It was a very powerful authentic dance performance.





great crowds!!







Amazing Band!





































My favorite pieces.









We had a couple of finger foods, including my boss' famous organic salsa!
I must say, we had a great time!
Thank you for your support. Hope to see you at the next Earth Works, which takes place in Early May.















2.25.2009

Earth Works02 is tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the day of the party!


In addition to the finger food included in the price of admission, we also have some items for sale.
It's not going to be the regular menu, but we prepared some things.

A couple of items are just for Earth Works.

I, myself created a special baked good, called "caramelized apple cake."
hope to see lots of people there tomorrow!

2.24.2009

Earth Works~02 is coming up!!

We are almost there!
Earth Works02!!

Some of the artists and Kio san, the event organizer (pic below) came to install their art pieces on the wall yesterday.


We are sooooooooo excited~ : )

oh, I forgot to mention on the earlier post that we are going to have a live music perfomance as well!

Great music, Great arts, and great foods!
Come party with us!!



2.22.2009

Mary's Secret Garden in Ventura

oh no~!!
I missed seeing all these great gals from Ventura again!!
Michelle (who's in the center) is a pastry chef at Mary's Secret Garden (great vegan restaurant in Ventura county). She brought her cousins, Kerry and Shoshana to celebrate Kerry's birthday at Shojin!

I heard all kinds of good things from my boss about them!

But I was off... :(


I just went to Michelle's website that my boss sent me!
She does pretty amazing stuff with vegan and organic ingredients!!
www.sweetandorganic.com

Reading the introduction of Chef Michelle, I learned she has made a cake for Ellen DeGeneres and Desparate Housewives!! How cool is that!!
But her work is not only for celebs, you can enjoy it at:

Mary's Secret Garden
100 S. First St. Ventura, CA 93001

2.21.2009

Umeboshi~☆pickled ume fruits☆

Ok.
So Ms. Kimiko suceeded in making this marvelous Umeboshi!!
It has been pickled for 9 mos!!! not to mention, we used ORGANIC ume!!

It is better to explain with wiki's words than mine, I thought.
So I'm putting some excerts from their site about Umeboshi.
"The citric acid acts as an anti bacterial, helps to increase saliva production and assists in the digestion of rice. In addition, the citric acid is said to combat fatigue and protect against aging."


If you are Japanese, you cannot live without it.
We, at shojin, eat it with tea sometimes to get over a bad cold... and so on.
But even if you are not Japanese or sick, you can enjoy this as a natural medicine
or secret flavoring for your Japanese cooking.

And this is for sale!!
We bottled only 7 jars.
It is going to be $30.00 per bottle.

If you are interested, please ask us!!

2.19.2009

Save the date! Feb 26th Earth Works 2

We are proud to present Earth Works 2 which is an opening night event of fine arts and LA based artists.

The last one was very successful. We had more than 100 people.
The admission cost will be $5~and up.
We have finger foods and drinks. It's all Shojin style, healthy and organic.
so please come down and join us to support our local artists!

These arts are some of my favorites that are still exhibited from the last Earth Work.
There will be more to see and more to enjoy!



For more infomation, please contact Shojin.

Valentine's day~vol. 2

It was a busy night so I couldn't take all of our customers pics...like I was plannning,
but I managed to take some of our regular customers.
They were all super nice and super excited about our course menu!
I can't express my love for them enough!


love!

(I am sooo sorry David! I didn't have enough courage to upload my pic...
So I am only uploading your beautiful wife and my boss! I think he's
gonna kill me if he sees this :P)
and how come I am so forgetful???
we had this yummiest sauteed eringii mushroom and kale with rosemary flavor as well on our valentine's course menu...





2.16.2009

Valentine's day

It was such a great night for us all.
There were tons of happy couples who came to celebrate their special day with us.
Thank you!
We LOVE you all~♪
I forgot to take a couple of pics, such as our Aperitif (Cranberry with apple sparkling soda),
3pc mountain potato and plum sushi, and organic coffee (or tea).
But I took pictures of most of them!
They were well recieved by our beloved customers.
(3 layered vegetable terrine with wasabi mayo)


(Carrot and Califlower soup)

(Mixed greens and roasted tomato with balsamic dressing)


(Cordon Bleu Seitan with Ratatouille)



(Hamburg steak with mushroom sauce)




(Desserts: red berry Gelee with raspberry tofu cream, Gateau
chocolat with soy whip, Sesame ice cream with sesame tuille)
It was a very busy and exciting night!!
I only got to see some of our customers, but I couldn't be happier to feel the heat and to hear joyous laughter from the dining room!!





2.11.2009

the Healthiest mixed drink ~Farmer's market II

This is another episode of Shojin Farmer's market story where our legendary famous mixed drink come from...



Detox...Detoxification is the removal of toxic substances from body.

http://www.sugarcanejuice.org/

We can read about how great this "Raw cane super juice" is from their website.



Anyways, we get this super juice from our good friends, Rey and her husband every Sunday along with vegetables at the farmer's market.

It contains some special ingredients such as ginger and cayenne pepper.



(pic below is Rey's hubby who is about to juice a cane)


At Shojin, the swankster server, Ken came up with 4 ways to enjoy this drink.

Organic Cranberry detox

Organic Apple cranberry

Organic Apple

water/Green tea


I had it yesterday with Apple cranberry!! Mmmm....

Delicious with a kick of heat!

This is the healthiest drink which will give you a boost of energy!!





2.08.2009

Crispy Avocado Salad

It seems like the Valenitne's day Special Course's seats are filled up almost all the way!
thanks to you all!!
(We have a couple more seats left! so if you haven't made a reservation yet! please hurry!!)


Well well....
here's my new favorite.
As a new Feb item, we are now serving this scrumptuous salad!!
It is a mixed green leaf with crispy tempura avocado.
The yummiest part of it is the dressing!!
WASABI mayo.
I love it, love it, love it!!

2.05.2009

Orange Creme Bavaroise~my new creation


Well...

I have to announce this...

I have added a new dessert menu.

It is called

"Orange Creme Bavaroise" Yey~!!!


People seem to love it.

Since it is citrus time, I wanted to use some oranges from my backyard. (which is totally organic)

It is a combination of tangy and soy-creamy bavaroise and fresh orange with bittersweet chocolate sponge cake.


It tastes incredibly healthy and refreshing...

pic below) Heather is one of the first one to taste the sample.

If you want to be pretty like her, this is it! you have to try the new dessert :)



for more information and menu, please visit our website

2.01.2009

plating a desert


It seems like I am not doing anything, but taking pictures and fooling around at the restaurant...
I however, work very hard :P to plate my deserts for customers.

One piece of evidence here!! It is my hand, scooping the ice cream.
And sometimes, I do deliver my deserts to customers.

Pic below: Heather and Ashkahn.

they are some of our regular customers who are about to dig in to the plate that I made.

How cute and lovely they are!!