Let's Go Sharks?

Today was my boyfriend's 26th birthday. To celebrate we went with a couple of his friends to a Sharks (NHL team) game. It was my first time to a hockey game ever, and I liked it more than baseball (based on a minor league game in San Jose). It was very flashy and fast. But the Sharks lost. 4-2 to the Detroit Red Wings. Oh well.

Of course, like most sports patrons, I had something to eat during the game. We wisely ate beforehand at a Togo's (a sandwich chain) to avoid most of the overpriced options, but I had a bad craving for french fries. Luckily they were relatively cheap and fresh.


My delicious and cheap Togo's sandwich before the game

The HP Pavilion Stadium (seats over 17,000 people -the game tonight was sold out too)


Warning! Flying pucks!

My fries!

I meant to take some pictures of the outside of the building and him with his friends, but I was tired and I forgot. I am sure I will find a way to deviously take photos of those same friends for this blog in the near future though...

As a random side note, the company my boyfriend works for, Brocade, sponsors a Sharks' zamboni. Great place for advertising, even if it was pretty ridiculous looking.

Finally, to celebrate my boyfriend's birthday with the appropriate traditional food, here is a photo of the birthday cake his parents bought him from a local grocery store. It was carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Very tasty, but so rich that to eat to any more than just a small piece was immediately stomach ache inducing.

The birthday boy with his cake,

And a close up of the nicely decorated cake.

All right, I think that was a pretty meaty post as I managed to update on time (more or less) and continue to blog regularly as I said I would. Considering how late it is here I think I did pretty well. Until the next post (soon if not tomorrow), have a good night!

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...

Eating Out

These past couple of days it seems we have been eating out a lot, whether it be for a social reason or simply one of convenience. I really do enjoy cooking, but sometimes, especially after that frustrating time from my last post, sometimes it is nice to take a break and enjoy a different meal or snack that, unlike a planned homemade meal, may be a completely spontaneous choice.

The first meal from this series was simple, but satisfying. Matt's mother Carol took me to walk around downtown Los Gatos late morning Friday, September 25. We found that most of the restaurants in the area she wanted to visit, Old Town, were too expensive, especially for lunch, so we wound up eating at a "Le Boulanger". It is just a sandwich place, nothing really fancy, but they don't seem to have any locations outside of the Bay Area (I checked) so it was different for me anyway.

Besides, I really really liked this sandwich. It consisted of chicken with hoisin sauce (a Chinese sauce), cucumbers, monterey jack cheese, and cilantro on sourdough bread. It was delicious and unique enough that I think I may try and recreate it at home. My usual sandwiches are pretty bland because I won't eat most normal sandwich condiments (mayonnaise, pickles, mustard, etc).

Anyway, despite having a normal simple dinner at home, we both decided to go out to eat again later with some of Matt's friends. As we were still pretty full by that time, Matt and I just snacked on the bread and had one drink each. As some at our side of the table had predicted would happen, appearing here are some pictures from Friday night at "Romano's Macaroni Grill Italian Restaurant".


Matt enjoying his "White Peach Sangria Martini" (at least, that's what I think it was, and it is in a martini glass). I had a "Leaning Bellini" in a silly glass that didn't photograph very well.



Ryan and Eileen with their delicious looking "Seafood Linguine" which I will definitely be ordering next time I go to this place and am actually hungry.

Finally, to conclude this post, here are some photos from Ikea which we went to on Saturday to look for a nightstand solve the crisis of Matt's alarm clock either being on my side of the bed (really disliked that) or on the floor on his side (also not a good idea). On the way out we decided since we have now gone to Ikea at least 3 times in the past month, it was high time to buy their dessert (we'd already had lunch there on another trip).

Matt had frozen yogurt.

I had their cinnamon roll. Delicious.

Okay, that's a long enough post from me tonight. Until I find or make more food to photograph or some more good food photos to reminisce about, I think I'd better get some sleep so I can continue to try make safe, fully concious decisions in the kitchen. As much as a kitchen catastrophe might be interesting to blog about, I usually prefer my food to not be completely scorched.