On Saturday night we decided to visit a recently discovered Izakaya restaurant near Japantown in San Jose. A few errands were on our list for the night, so we opted to grab an early dinner before the rush crowd hit. Unfortunately, the posted hours were wrong and the restaurant wasn’t open when we arrived. It had just started to rain so we followed another couple to Sushi Zen located next door.

The menu is filled with over 100 types of sushi rolls, plus many grilled appetizers and entrees. Overall, the food was presented nicely and everything tasted fantastic. Many asian restaurants serve fresh oranges as a dessert, and I was intrigued by the presentation of what I call this restaurant’s ‘orange lollipops’. The oranges were chilled and sliced so that you used a wooden skewer to pick up each bite … so no messy fingers! I liked the idea so much that I decided to replicate it at home tonight.

I chilled my oranges in the fridge for a couple hours to get them good and cold. Slice off a 1/4″ disc from each end, then slice the orange in half to create two circular pieces.

Next, take each circular section and run a sharp knife around the inside peel in order to remove the flesh. Be careful when doing this step … I nearly knifed myself. You should not break the peel, it must remain in a circular shape.

Take one of the 1/4″ end pieces and place into the peel and push to the bottom to create a small bowl. Cut the flesh into four sections and place into the bowl along with a toothpick or wooden skewer.

That’s it! Now you have sweet, chilled bites of orange to cleanse your palate. This would be a great finsih to a casual dinner party. Just prepare it the night in advance and keep chilled in the fridge. A quick and simple dessert :-)

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