My roommates--Jayna and CP--went out last night to Jimisan's for our going-away dinner. It's a nice little sushi place owned by Jimisan and his wife Kimi, who's also the hostess/server there. The roomies had gone about 2 weeks ago and were raving about it, and I can't think of a time when I'd been to a really good sushi restaurant, so I agreed excitedly to go to Jimisan's.

It was a great time. Jayna is a regular customer there, so when we came through the door, Kimi greeted her by name as though she were an old friend. We were seated at the bar and spent quite a bit of time talking to Jimi and Todd (the other sushi chef). I loosened up a few sake shots later. :P

Needless to say, I was not disappointed with the fish. Everything was so delicious, but the most memorable bite for me was the very first bite of the stuffed tomatoes (somehow cut sushi style so that the tomato looked like it was a piece of sushi fish wrapped around the rice and scallops). The only other thing we ordered was the tamago (egg) nigiri, then we asked Jimisan to make us whatever's good that night. He obliged happily. The fish were so fresh, higher-quality than what I'm used to in cheaper sushi restaurants, and the pieces were melt-in-your-mouth kind of good. I loved the ocean trout and the toro.

Towards the end of our dinner, Todd started talking about uni (sea urchin) and encouraged us to try it, that it was something one needed to try at least once in their lives. I took him up on this (maybe liquid courage from the sake). CP has a video clip of the moment--I'll post a link if/when she sends it to me. It turned out to be really good, and I could see why some customers would love the stuff so much. It wasn't until I got home later and looked it up that I realized that uni is sea urchin gonads. Still good, though! I'm sure some people may have had bad experiences with uni, but it was fresh at Jimisan's, and Todd warned us that we were coming towards the end of the peak season for fresh uni.

We got to talking about Jimisan's hat when we got to our red bean ice cream. He had this black hat that said "MANILOW" in big red letters and was hanging in the corner. Jayna told us this story about how a customer had given this hat to Jimisan and said that the hat was to be passed on to other people. "He was from Colorado," Jimisan mused. Someone suggested that CP take the hat since she was moving to Denver, so Jimisan gave her the Manilow hat and showed us a photo of the guy who gave him the hat so that if she ever bumped into him, she'd recognize him. Very cute little adventure for her. :)

Anyway, it was good times. I came home quite tipsy. Will post photos when I get them.

I think I may now be addicted to butter mochi.


(photo ganked from Google Images)

My roommate made some last night and let me try some. The only thing that stopped me from asking for more is that I finished off whatever was left in the pan. SO DELICIOUS.

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Edit 4/30/08: This is bad. It's so craveable that I'm still thinking about it today. I hope she makes some more this weekend! :)

Dinner tonight:



A slightly brighter photo here.

Ingredients:
- Steamed zucchini, asparagus, and carrots, very lightly salted
- Canned corn with a little Sriracha sauce on top, both for the spicy kick and to emulate "worms"
- Hard-boiled eggs with carrot and zucchini pieces to make the faces
- Ramen noodles (chicken-flavored)

And it was all unintentionally vegetarian! I think going for color really encourages me to put more veggies into my diet.

Are you sick of the food-related posts yet? :P

P.S. Hopefully, my next roommate will be a photographer, so I can post better photos of these meals!

As per last week's post, I'm starting up bento boxing (bento box making?). I bought this really cute box at Lucky's yesterday with 3 compartments. It was designed to hold sandwiches and cold snacks, but I've never been much of a sandwich person, so I decided to put something else in instead.

My bento box today:
Snack box - Apples & oranges
Sides box - Sauteed zucchini and mushrooms with sun-dried tomatoes
Main box - Rice-a-roni (Mexican)

It's not cute, but it's gonna be yummy and colorful. And I did attempt to make it cute; I cut the zucchini into hearts and stars, but sauteeing them made them less cute.

Photos to come later. Right now, my rice-a-roni is being cooked.

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Edit: Photos!

( Bento! )

Not that cute for my first attempt, but the colors were pretty and it was VERY tasty, so... *high fives self*!

I think my next attempt will be a "bird's nest" ramen box. Planned:
- Ramen noodles for the nest part
- Two hard boiled egg "chicks", pictured in the last bento post
- A side dish of corn
- A small snack/dessert of gummy worms? :P Or vienna sausages cut into the shape of worms (I love sausages with my ramen)
- If I don't do the gummy worms, then the snack/dessert will be banana chips and walnuts

I'll be doing some baking on Thursday afternoon anyway, so I'll probably attempt this for my Thursday night dinner break between classes.

I've been thinking about going into making bento boxes, 'specially on a regular basis. It'll be a great hobby, because:

1) I'll be more nutritionally aware of and involved in what I'm eating, which hopefully will mean a healthier diet!
2) There's something psychologically comforting about food that's visually good-looking.
3) I'll get satisfaction from knowing that I can prepare something beautiful and appetizing.
4) I can start a photo blog strictly on bento boxes (which I think would be a way fun blog to do!)
5) I can show off to people at work or school. That's always fun! :P

So I'm thinking about accruing bento supplies. I'm not sure what this will involve quite yet as there's more to the art than just the cute little bento boxes, but I'd imagine that there are utensil holders, sauce containers, molds, mini cookie cutters, etc. It's intricate, time-consuming work, so I'd probably just want to try it once a week once I get started.

BUT JUST LOOK AT HOW CUTE MY MEALS CAN BE OMG

(I probably won't make them as fancy as mmmbento does, but I'll be darned if I don't try a few times!)

Also, I'd imagine it could have very therapeutic applications for kids. Imagine being a kid and earning your own awesome bento box after working so hard on x issue! Yes, very awesome indeed.

In the meantime, I'm gonna try to make one of these guys:



Site note: my birthday's in about a month, so if you were wondering about birthday gifts, bento-related items are a plus this year. :)

All the potato suggestions sounded delicious, and I plan to try them all eventually. I ended up going with zyzyly's made-up suggestion with stuffed potatoes tonight based on the idea that it would look pretty with my steak. I forgot to add the milk and instead added ricotta cheese to the spinach stuffing. Added basil and parsley. Also, instead of 10 minutes in the oven, I put the stuffed potatoes in for 20-30 minutes because my roommate was telling me a good story. It turned out really crispy, aromatic, and tasty, more fun to eat than the steak.

I breaded the steak and pan seared it before braising it in the oven. Lots of mistakes here, but it was a good learning experience and still ended up tasting okay. First, I burnt one side of the first steak. Oops, left it too long. The second one turned out perfectly golden brown as a result. (See, I learn from my mistakes!) Second, I didn't have vegetable stock available, so I used chicken stock and added chopped veggies in the hopes that their flavors would combine. 'Course, this just made my pork steaks taste like chicken later, but no matter! They were still good. I'll use just water next time.

Here's the finished result:

( I love food photos! )

I'm making breaded pork steaks for dinner tonight, but I'm wondering what to make as the side(s). Anybody have suggestions? Some things I have:

- potatoes
- shredded mozzarella
- spinach
- chopped broccoli, cauliflower, snow peas, carrots (in one of those veggie bags... they were on sale for $1)
- canned corn
- ricotta cheese (that I used for lasagne a few nights ago, and that I should use up)
- rice

Hmm. I seem to be missing tomatoes and garlic. I'll pick some up later after work. Anything else I should pick up?

My breakfast was intended to be Happy Face eggs, but I splashed on the soy sauce before I thought to take the photo. Oops. Also, the right yolk "eye" broke while I fried the eggs, and I splashed on too much Sriracha sauce. So now I name these "Joker eggs" because they kind of look like the Joker.

The demise of the Joker eggs. They were delicious. ;)

I got interested in making homemade jam once Chrissy introduced the idea. I thought it would make great Christmas gifts and would be a little different from the baked goods idea.

So I got together the supplies I needed and did a test run today with a strawberry-peach combination. I used frozen strawberries and canned peaches just so that I wouldn't waste good, fresh fruit on a test run. Also, because I'm new to the canning process, I eyeballed the measurements a bit and kind of messed up on the sterilizing process... which means that for better or for worses, I gotta finish this whole test batch over a span of 3 weeks. I'm crossing my fingers for tastiness; I like how there are chunks of peaches, and I'm thinking it's gonna go great with pancakes.

Anyway, here are two photos.



And just to give you an idea of the size of the jars (4 oz.), my thumb is 2 inches in length:



If you're interested in the canning process and storing jam and other foods in sterile jars, here's a good video of how to do it. It's an episode of Good Eats in two parts: [1] [2]

Poll #1100028 Favorite fruit jam?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What's your favorite fruit jam?

I finally downloaded photos from the past month or so into my computer.

( Weekend(s) with MF )

( Thanksgiving weekend )

Most interestingly, though, today I just got back from my first "tea time" experience at Lovejoy's in the Mission district. I met up with Chrissy and her friend Sarah there, and we were amazed that the place was so cute! I think the mismatched china and quirky decor had something to do with it. We had unlimited refills of the spicy citrus tea and the gingerbread tea (I highly recommend the latter!).


( Tea time! )

It was a very cute experience. If you're in the city, I highly recommend visiting Lovejoy's with some girlfriends and at least $20. It's not cheap, but it's so worth the splurge, and I think it's still cheaper than the other tea rooms in the city.

Last year, I was strapped for cash, so I made chocolate-covered cherry cookies to pass out as gifts.

This year, I'm equally strapped for cash, so I'm making baked goods again this year. I recently had a Costco muffin that was amazing (I think it was some kind of crumb muffin?) and inspired the idea of passing out bigger baked goods.

So I'll be making mini-bread loaves or muffins to pass out this year, but I've never made either before. So I'm posting today for recommendations. If you've got recipes to share in the comments, that would be even better. But for now...



Poll #1095682 Christmas baked goods!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What mini-bread or muffin do you find especially delicious (holiday theme not required)?

Can anyone recommend a good eggnog recipe, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic?

In class, the topic of early childhood memories came up. We were asked to try and think of our earliest childhood recollections. I spent about 10 minutes writing down whatever I could remember before the age of 5 or 6. Here's what I wrote:

• Eating orange ice cream at the zoo with my family. It was the icy sort of ice cream, not the creamy kind. Dad helped me with the ice cream wrapper. (about 3-4 years old)


• Eating a peach at the beach while wearing a frilly purple/pink bathing suit. I was there with my mom's family, and I remember wearing a tiger-shaped inflatable. (about 3-4 years old)


• Moving for the first time. It was early in the morning, and while I don't remember what we did, I do remember two objects vividly: my worn, stuffed puppy, and my parents' blanket, which was light brown and patterned with small flowers. (about 2 years old)


• Eating cheerios at my grandparents' house. I remember not liking Cheerios at all, but Grandma made me finish it, milk and all. (about 5 years old)


• Picking raspberries from the backyard with my dad and brother Peter. I remember the berry stains in our fingers and the surprising prickliness of the berries. (6 years old?)


• Roasting marshmallows in front of the fireplace with my family. We "camped out" in the living room with our blankets and pillows and slept with the fire as our night light. (about 5 years old)


• Hiding under the kitchen table with my family during an earthquake. Dad pulled my brother and me from our beds, and we held onto the table legs during the quake. We decided to camp out under the kitchen table that night, the four of us. (about 5 years old)

It wasn't until I finished that I noticed how many of my early memories involved food. I wonder what that means. Maybe something happened right before I ate those food items.

P.S. I swear that my "hungry" mood is purely coincidental.

I'm a little sick this weekend, so instead of going out, I thought I'd make a photo post. I still need to update about my Canada trip with my family, but that could still wait. I just want to get some other photos out of the way first.

Last month, I accompanied a classmate to John Muir Woods in the north bay. If you enjoy hiking, Muir Woods is a great place to check out with lots of trails, varying from easy, paved paths to more difficult paths (in which you'd be rewarded with really lovely views of the bay!).

( photo... )

The week after that, I went to the Ghiradelli Chocolate Festival in SF (on the Saturday). I was hoping for more than just ice cream, cookies, and brownies, and I think the Sunday festival featured chocolate pasta or spaghetti or something.

( photo... )

About a week after that, I flew home briefly for friends (visiting James/Theresa) and family (taking our family portrait). The following was taken on our way to the photo studio. Dad was driving, and Mom's sleeping in the back. Teenage sister Teresa took this photo from the front passenger seat.

( photo... )

The week after that, I had to stay in during the weekend to finish a paper. MF surprised me by ordering me Thai food from a local restaurant, having them deliver it to my place. I thought it was one of the most thoughtful and romantic things he's done for me. The delivery came in a huge brown bag, and it took me about a week to eat all this food (I ate an entree once a day).

( photo... )

The week after that, no photos were taken. I get pretty drained from the weekdays, so lately on weekends, I'm content to just stay in. I had "movie night" with MF that Saturday, which I know probably sounds a little corny with us syncing our DVD players to watch a movie at the same time, but when you're 3000 miles away, that's pretty much what some of your dates are gonna look like. It was still a pretty sweet evening.

Huh. I thought there were gonna be more photos, but I guess not! I have some time to do the Canada post now, so I'll do that right after this one.

A local Chinese restaurant (Mandarin) left a menu on our door today. I picked it up absentmindedly to look at later.

I leafed through it just now to see if they offered one of my favorite dishes, crispy beef with sesame (I think this is the recipe for that). I was disappointed to see that they didn't, but I noticed something else under their "Special" section.

S. MANGO OSTRICH ......................... 9.95
T. KUNG PAO OSTRICHI .................. 9.95

(Yes, it had that typo.)

Now, I've always wanted to try ostrich meat (sorry, vegetarian friends), but considering the general quality of my local Chinese restaurants... I'm thinking that this restaurant has no business serving ostrich meat.

But then again... it can't be all that bad if it's served with mango, can it?


Note to self: post some recent photos taken since Labor Day, including a few from the Ghiradelli Chocolate Festival.

Note about Chocolate Festival: I thought I was totally sick of chocolate after Saturday, but the first thing I had on Sunday was tea and chocolate-filled koala crackers.

Back in June or July, MF and I were exploring Clement Street when we came across a cute little Japanese shop called Genki's. They're known in the area for their crispy crepes, but to me, Genki's elicits thoughts of Japanese trinkets and groceries. Among them was this:



"What's THIS?" I asked MF. The box was entirely in Japanese. We couldn't tell if it was a really frothy cappuccino or a muffin in a mug, but the picture in the back gave us a clue.

( Photos and descriptions )

And the taste? Mostly spongy. Not as chocolatey as I had hoped for. But the novelty is worth the money, and I've never seen a cupcake "bake" so fast. :P

I was reading a recent entry from a friend's LJ about groceries and cooking, and I mentioned the idea of cooking in bulk so that she could enjoy good meals without having to cook every night or throw away foods that go bad.

I started fantasizing about lasagne and decided that I'm gonna make that this Sunday. :)

Other meals that I like or don't mind eating leftovers of are:
- most pasta dishes
- curry (as long as I keep the rice/noodles and curry separate)
- non-soupy noodles like pad-see-lew (sp?)

Some things I'd rather not eat leftovers of but can include:
- fried rice (they get mushy after awhile)
- stir-fry dishes (veggies in the stir-fry get soggy, and I like them kind of crispy)

I was about to put pho as something I couldn't eat leftovers of, but I can if the noodles and soup are kept separate.

What do you cooks like to store as leftovers? I'd like some suggestions. :)

robio: More pictures of you with exotic food. I miss those pics from when you were in China. If you can't find anything exotic, just any food on a stick will do.

I miss those China photos, too. As it is, Chinatown will have to do. :P

I went to a Thai restaurant with a friend last Monday. King of Thai Noodle House lived up to its Yelp reputation. I ordered the pineapple fried rice:



Look at how beautiful that is! And it tasted as great as it looked, too! I was really surprised at how great the pineapple was with the fried rice, and the golden raisins were a really nice touch, too. Other ingredients that made the texture interesting included cashews and eggs. I asked them not to put onions. :)

I couldn't finish it all, so I boxed the rest and finished it a few days later:



I was pretty amazed that it still looked super cute being all boxy like that. :)

Oh, and I guess you were looking for food on a stick. Here's an old one from Nanjing that I don't think I've posted up. The food in question is "stinky tofu." And yes, it was stinky. It didn't taste bad, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to buy it again.

I had my first tapas experience last Sunday thanks to Brent. We went to this nice tapas restaurant in downtown Mountain View.

I ordered a ceviche. It was really cute! I forgot to bring my camera (yay Canon Powershot!), so I couldn't get a sharp photo, but Brent was good enough to take a photo for me. :)



See? Cute! It's like... a crunchy bunny. Or something.

(As for taste, it was okay. I'm not a fan of that crisp ginger taste, but the tuna and shrimp were really good.)

On an unrelated note, I should post up a few shots from my new camera. Does anyone have any requests?