The Columbus Digest- So, I loved your work on Erfworld, the over large heads on tiny bodies, powerful beasts that look like they would be just as at home eating a live Elk whole or at a nine year old girls birthday party, how much of the visual style of Erfworld sprang from you, and how much of it was collaborative with Rob Baldur?
Jamie Noguchi- Rob and I had a few initial meetings where he told me what his plans were for the project. During these sessions, I would sort of sketch out ideas for characters and general style for the world. I'd say most of the visual stuff was from my crazy brain. Once we started getting pages out, Rob would have ideas for specific things he wanted to see.A few times he sent over sketches of specific set pieces that he
wanted included.
C-Bus D.- In your current venture "Yellow Peril," food is a frequently recurring theme and the character 'Julie' is a Chef. And it makes me wonder do you consider yourself a foodie?
Jamie Noguchi- I suppose I am a bit of a foodie. I like to eat good food. But I'm not a snob about it. I like a good street hot dog as much as a fine piece of sushi.
C-Bus D.- In my opinion, a real foodie meets just your criteria. It's not about rubbing peoples noses in your Bisque, enjoying something delicious, and the best side dish to have with any meal is friends and family, their company I mean, you'd run out of them pretty quickly if word got out you were using them as an actual side dish.
C-Bus D.- Julie's restaurant, 'Chez Wong,' is French Asian Fusion combining the best of Szechuan and French cuisines, is that just happenstance or does it reflect the kind of cooking you do at home?
Jamie Noguchi- Chez Wong is sort of weird reference to a restaurant that used to be in Bethesda. It's long gone, but it always made me laugh whenever I passed by. I don't think there was anything French about the place except for the name. So when it came time to create Julie, I thought it would be funny if she was trained in classical French cuisine but fused it with food from her cultural heritage. Also, my wife is half French and she's introduced me to some very excellent French food which I plan on including in the comic sometime in the future.
C-Bus D.- Discounting Kane's Blazing Sword Burger, do you have a 'specialty' dish that you feel is really definitive of your cooking? And if so, are you willing to share the recipe?
Jamie Noguchi- One of my favorite things to make is spaghetti and meatballs. I'm still trying to get the recipe just right, but basically I mix ground beef, sausage, garlic, egg as a binder, breadcrumbs (sometimes), various spices that I find around the house. Then I form them into balls and plop them in the sauce. As you can tell, I don't really measure anything which is probably bad because I can never repeat anything exactly the same. As for sauce, if I'm feeling really adventurous, I'll get a whole mess of roma tomatoes, score the skin with a knife, and then boil them until the skin starts to peel. Then I skin them, cut them up into quarters, and squish them through a wire colander to make sure the seeds don't get in. If I'm lazy, I just squish the tomatoes into the pot. A little salt, some garlic, some olive oil, bring it to a boil, then let it simmer. Then start plopping in the meatballs and wait until they're good and cooked through. I'm still messing with the recipe a bit. One thing I want to try when I have time is baking the meatballs first before they go into the sauce to get a nice crust on them. Also, I think I want to try hand mixing the meat. The food processor tends to turn the meat into a paste which gives the meatballs a really smooth texture. I kinda want a chunkier texture so next time I do it, I'll probably try mixing the meats by hand. Oh, I made a beef stew once from a recipe that was freaking rad! I don't remember it off hand, but it surprised me how good it turned out. As you can see, I'm kind of a comfort food kinda guy when I cook at home.
C-Bus D.- I tend to just jot my recipes down right after I make something in case I really love how it turns out, or so I can tinker with it if it doesn't. I agree about the hand mixing (and not just because I haven't found a good food processor to fit my budget yet) I like my food to taste professional but feel home made and that smoothly ground meat texture screams store bought to me. I can and have done the professional style exactly sized cuts, slices, and cubes of meats and vegetables, but I find it endearing in a dish to occasionally find that one piece of meat that is randomly twice as big as most of them, or that one piece of carrot that is a little firmer than the rest because it was just to big to cook through.
C-Bus D.-After you read my post about The Blazing Sword Burger did you check out any of our recipes? And if so, did anything in particular catch your eye?
Jamie Noguchi-The Wasabenero Sauce definitely caught my eye. I love me a good hot sauce. The Blazing Black Bean Burger is something that I'd like to try on a grill. And I'd love to get my hands on some Mumbo Gumbo!
C-Bus D.- Let me know when you do come to Columbus and I'll whip you up some of anything on the blog. Sharing good food with interesting people is what got me interested in cooking in the first place.
C-Bus D.-You're walking alone down a dark street late at night when all of a sudden everything goes black as a burlap sack is dragged over your head. You try to fight back but are overwhelemed by sheer numbers and loaded into a vehicle and driven for what seems like hours. The vehicle finally stops and you are unloaded like so much baggage and carried a short distance into a building where the bag is removed and as you stare blearily around there is a roar of sound... "Surprise!" All of this has been a clever ruse by your closest friends and family to get you to a surprise birthday party three weeks before the date, so you wouldn't suspect. Spread out on a table in front of you are your five favorite foods, what are they?
Jamie Noguchi- Sushi, pizza, tacos, ramen, chili.
C-Bus D.-So, would there be vengeance for the kidnapping? Or would you let it slide because it turned out to be part of Birthday Extravaganza?
Jamie Noguchi- Oh, there would definitely be revenge for the kidnapping. But if the food is good enough, it would be less severe!
C-Bus D.-Have you ever commited arson or cooked barbeque, and if so are you a coal, gas, or wood kind of guy?
Jamie Noguchi- Not yet. We're looking to buy a grill as we just moved in to a new
house. Any suggestions?
C-Bus D.-Grilling is a pretty personal taste for most people. Gas is the most convenient, a tank lasts a good long while, the only thing you have to clean up is anything that drips from the food itself, and there is rarely any trouble getting it lit. But gas grills tend to be a bit expensive and as a cooking medium goes it doesn't really add anything in the way of flavor. Coal is the cheapest, once Spring hits damn near every gas station, dollar store, grocery store, and creepy little kid on the roadside will sell you coal for a couple bucks. It's pretty convenient to light and adds a little bit of smokey flavor to your food. But it is messy, hella messy. If you buy more than you'll be using right away you have to keep a bag of it stored somewhere leaking fine black powder all over your floor, if you ever use charcoal as a drawing medium you probably already know what I'm talking about, not to mention having all those burger dripping greasy ashes to dispose of afterwards. Wood is the barbeque masters method of choice, since it adds a variety of delicious smoked flavors to anything you cook on it, it stores pretty much indefinitely, and a small artfully stacked wood pile can actually look pretty nice in the yard. But it tends to be a bit more expensive if you have to buy it, and again leaves you with a lot of ash. It is also the slowest method since it can be a motherfucker to get lit and you need to wait for it to burn down most of the way before you do any cooking. Depending on your circumstances I'd usually recommend charcoal with a small selection of wood chips (apple, oak, and mesquite maybe) on hand to throw over the coals for a little extra flavor. Also, since your answer was a
little unclear on the issue I would suggest against arson, it's funny, hilarious really, but a messy and dangerous business.
C-Bus D.-If you had to pick three sauces, and only three sauces to represent the side bar for every dish you were to eat for the rest of your life, what would they be?
Jamie Noguchi- Sriracha, dijon, soy sauce.
C-Bus D.-You may or may not like pork as a meat, but regardless, in any great war sides must be chosen, do you stand with Ham, Sausage, or Bacon? You've mentioned that Bacon makes everything Ultimate, but does that mean in your eyes it stands as The Pork Supreme?
Jamie Noguchi- Oh man, that's a toughie. Sausage is freaking amazing but a perfectly cooked piece of bacon is superb. You know what, I'm gonna have to go with bacon. I was a vegetarian for a year and it was bacon that brought me back.
C-Bus D.- I stand on the side of Ham, so watch your back if it ever comes to Gladiatorial Combat, cause I know where your loyalties lie.
C-Bus D.-When do you think we'll be seeing you set up a booth at one of our many awesome conventions?
Jamie Noguchi- I would love to come out to a convention out there. I've got to get a list and see what's up.In general, if I'm ever in a new town, I like to find local places that I can't get when I'm in MD. I try to stay away from chains like the Fridays or the Ruby Tuesdays and go for something local. I mean,
that's the whole point of getting out of your town, right!
C-Bus D.- Well, Columbus is the town for it, you can barely walk a 1/4 mile without bumping into at least two small start ups. That is one of the reasons I've been putting together a restaurant review section. So many new and interesting places to try, so few dollars to spend on eating out. But, honestly, it might be worth your time to try some of our chain restaurants too, a lot of people don't know that we are the corporate testing ground for new dishes. The company I work for is a HUGE chain of restaurants and we get new menu items sometimes six months before they hit other restaurants in our chain and the feed
back that our guests give often decides if those items ever make it out of our walls.
