Downtown San Antonio

Continuing my adventures in San Antonio...

On Dec 26th we slept in late, went to see Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol at a local Texan theater. I believe it was part of this regional chain - Santikos Theatres - and it was interesting not only in its being decked out in stereotypical Texas western decorations, but also in that it had assigned seating in each theater! I haven't come across that since Japan. I'm not sure how well it would work elsewhere in the US, but this theater was well staffed and had plenty of ushers to direct people to their seats and there were no issues. We picked out good seats on a kiosk ahead of time.

While waiting my mom shoved my brother and I into one of those photo booths and insisted we take photos. Here are some of the results:

Alfie looks thrilled, as always.

After the movie we had a late dinner at the Iron Cactus on the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio. For a touristy "Mexican Grill" complete with live music it was actually pretty good. I had shrimp tacos and lots and lots of chips and salsa. I think my mom and brother had variations of an enchilada or two.
Yum. They were fairly generous with the shrimp.

Dessert was their version of tres leches as well as some delicious flan.


Finally, we just walked around the Riverwalk since all the X-mas lights were still up, and it was a pretty serene place to walk after dinner, once most of the rest of the tourists had left (or were only in the parts with bars).


I would have liked to stay longer, but Alfie is still underage, my mom doesn't live that close to downtown, and were were all pretty tired. Just as I am getting tired now. The San Antonio holiday trip conclusion will come next entry. Good night all.

Finally! But first, a transformation!

All right, I'm tired from being productive with job stuff, making a mess of the kitchen, and going to the gym so I will try to keep this blog post fairly short.

Today (Monday) was all around a delicious day as I figured out what I wanted to eat for lunch and dinner. I didn't feel like cooking anything elaborate for lunch,but I was bored with our usual easily microwavable meals, so I stuck my head in the fridge to see what was in there. As a result,

these rather boring leftovers (somewhat tough tri tip steak, hash browns, steamed green beans) from last Friday night

became this delicious sandwich! I actually liked the reheated-steak sandwich with Swiss cheese, sourdough bread and tomatoes a lot more than the freshly cooked steak by itself - as my friend Valeria said in a comment on my last post, never underestimate the power of sandwiches! I think it was actually my dad who taught me this trick - if life gives you leftovers (or weird canned foods or a lack of hot dog buns) make sandwiches! Previously unappetizing food can be saved this way.

What the "Finally!" in my title refers to is what I made for dinner: a recipe I have been wanting to attempt for around two weeks now - Japanese karaage (fried chicken)!




I have missed it so much. Since a number of you reading this probably already know how to make it or have a pretty good idea, I am not going to post the full recipe I used, but for those who aren't familiar with it, I soaked the chicken (boneless, skinless, thigh pieces with excess fat cut out) in a marinade that consisted of soy sauce, ginger, sugar, sake, and garlic. I then coated the chicken in cornstarch and then fried it in some very hot canola oil. Very hot. The chicken was never burned but some other kitchen implements were...hence the mess mentioned at the beginning. While it was a pretty simple recipe, I was very happy that my karaage tasted almost exactly like some of the ones I had eaten at restaurants in Japan. I served it over broccoli and steamed white rice.

Drink - Nigori (unfiltered) sake. I forget which brand right now but it was from Kobe and in a small pink bottle.

And in other food-related news of interest, on Sunday we went with Matt's family (including an aunt) to a good Mexican-American style restaurant in the small mission town of San Juan Batista.

It was called Los Jardines (the gardens) which should seem fairly appropriate with this picture here as most of the restaurant was outside in areas like these (look towards the back). Sunday had been a very hot day (easily over 100) but by evening it had cooled off so of course we ate outside. Los Jardines was also actually a fairly decent sized restaurant for such a small town.

But how was the food?


Carne Asada (roast meat, in this case beef), with rice and beans. Such a big portion but I was very hungry by this point (we had just gone to a Catholic mass in a very hot church) so that's ok! This food was delicious. Unfortunately not pictured, but one of the best parts of this meal were the flour tortillas that were also provided. I am so used to store-bought, chemically preserved flour tortillas that having freshly made tortillas was amazing. I need to make it a point to eat fresh flour or corn tortillas more often because the ones I have in the fridge just aren't the same. My taste buds and mouth can so easily tell the difference in both flavor and texture.

Okay, enough for tonight, I am getting hungry! More food to come...stay tuned...