Japan!

Well, it is official now. I am somehow returning to Japan for the third fall in a row, for about two weeks from October 21st to November 8th. And no, while naturally this has been something I've wanted to do since I left Japan, I have not been hiding my actual travel plans from readers/Facebook friends/family. In true Nina last minute travel planning fashion, I literally booked the flight two days ago and bothered the wonderful Megan Elfman who is there studying abroad two days before that. In celebration, anticipation, and impatience for Japanese food, we had shabu shabu tonight. It consisted appropriately cut beef from the local Mitsuwa, carrots, enoki (they're a type of delicious mushroom for those who are aren't familiar with them) onions, tofu, and of course, shabu shabu ponzu sauce (citrus soy sauce). It was delicious.


The very generous portions of beef I just cooked all at once as I lack an electric skillet for the table and my boyfriend was very hungry and did not want to wait to eat. I need one of those skillets. Maybe in the near future...

In-N-Out Burger, an Ode

Oh In-N-Out Burger
Your delicious beef patties
And the freshest of cheese
On a succulent bun of perfect bread
And on-site prepared fries
Makes me forgot that
99.9% of the time I hate fast food
At least in the US.
And why you limit yourself to the west,
I will never know
But if it is to retain quality
Than it must stay so.
Such a delicious place.

I figured some bad poetry would serve as a better summary of how I feel about the west-coast based fast food chain (not franchise though) In-N-Out Burger than some boring long winded explanation about why I'm even including a fast food chain in my blog. Basically, they are proof that if you use the right ingredients (ie, what people use in their home kitchen instead of flavorless processed stuff) even quickly prepared burgers and fries can taste absolutely delicious.

Yum.

But after not one, but two fast food digressions in one week (even if they were delicious and reasonably portioned - the key!), it is back to healthy stir-fried vegetables and sandwiches for me.

Housewarming Party

A week ago was the housewarming party I alluded to in the previous post. I apologize for taking so long to write about after the actual event, but as I also mentioned in that post, neither my boyfriend nor I have been feeling very well recently. Amazingly, I somehow made a complete recovery before the party after taking a nap, however, not even half an hour before the party was planned to start, Matt's health suddenly took a turn for the worse. His stomach was a mess, and he developed a high fever and severe exhaustion. As the timing for this was so last minute, and I had already finished preparing everything anyway, we decided to have the housewarming party anyway. Somehow I pulled it off, keeping Matt's friends fed and entertained even with Matt spending the majority of it semi-delirious in bed. I enjoyed the time overall, I just would still prefer that the next party progresses a little more normally. Whether he had gastroenteritis or Influenza Type A (my mom the RN did not think he had H1N1) we'll never know since he didn't go to the doctor, but he since spent most of this past week recovering from it I haven't really been cooking anything wonderfully exotic to blog about. Just the standard bland cold foods adopted a little for my standards and needs because I was eating most of them too. As I don't care for Campbell's chicken and rice soup (way too much sodium), I made my own using organic chicken broth, canned white meat chicken and enriched long grain rice. As for applesauce, I bought unsweetened (apples have enough sugar in them naturally!) and the toast was made from nice crusty sourdough bread. Only the bananas were normal simply because the organic ones at the grocery store didn't smell right for some reason. I think they were overripe.

By contrast, the food provided at the party was all very rich and not nearly as healthy.

While not the best photo, this arrangement from front to back consists of pepperoni with cream cheese, baguette slices with melted mozzarella and tomato pieces, and fried calamari rings (from Japan! via Whole Foods).

A diseased Matt standing by the food (maybe that was a bad idea) and seasonally decorated table with some of the party guests.

A still diseased Matt now over on the couch but still near the food he cannot eat. Keith over on the left was trying to avoid photos but I got him anyway! Ha! Also in this picture are a bowl of nice thick tortilla chips, delicious guacamole (store bought, but the succulent Wholly Guacamole, the only kind that's any good if you're not eating homemade. I know from experience aka helping Valeria that making guacamole is a lot of work and shriveled lime soaked fingers) and another bowl containing pico de gallo.

Not pictured from the party are the large lasagna from Costco, dutch apple pie, and some delicious ice cream that Keith brought as well as some more chips from Ryan and Eileen. I also seemed to have missed some of the party guests on camera...just wait until next time!

Fortunately Matt is now fully recovered and as my stomach is just fine I hope to have more culinary adventures this week since last week was seriously barren of much cooking or even eating out at special places. As good as Papa Murphy's pizza is, it is still pretty standard pizza. However, this week already does look to be off to a better start by today's random gem of a dinner:
For those who do not know what this wonderful place is, this is a gyuudon, or beef bowl, restaurant, essentially a Japanese fast food place that I ate at ALL the time because it was so cheap and filling. I missed it so much and while I'd heard rumors of them existing somewhere in the US, I didn't realize one would be so close by. But...would they have the same food?


Well, clearly there have to be some differences, the plastic-ware, the styrofoam, and those vegetables in Matt's bowl look a little suspect for example, but otherwise the flavor was the one I have been craving. Even if I prefer Matsuya to Yoshinoya - it was closer to where I lived in Japan so I ate there a lot more.

So random and unexpected for me anyway (I'm not from this area) but absolutely delicious. I think we will be going there again soon.

Great...

I am not going to rant here; that is not the purpose of this blog, but just like I said with the unsuccessful day of cooking, some things are bound to happen eventually. Such as the irony that is today. Today is going to be our big housewarming party (4pm) and today both Matt and I have stomach bugs. Good food is one of the critical elements of parties (especially for me) so I have been planning elaborate appetizers to prepare but now I can't really eat anything beyond toast and chicken noodle soup. Matt doesn't even feel like eating anything. Hopefully this is one of those stomach bugs that goes away fast. I don't feel like myself when I'm not craving delicious things to eat!