めかぶ and Cookies!

My sister was kind enough to send me mekabu lol for my healthy snack!

I actually ate two of them today, and now there are none left in the package :(
Mekabu is the root part of wakame... according to the package.

and TODAY is a special day. because one of my friends called me during lunch time to tell me that those homemade looking yummy cookies were OUT TODAY IN THE DINING HALLS.

So the story goes like this... it's kind of lame, but I did it. I found these granola cranberry cookies last semester at one of the dining halls. I grabbed one and walked out of the dining hall thinking these are really really good. So I decide to get some more, so i went to "dining hall S" but they didn't have them! So proceeded to "dining hall T," but nope. So went to "dining hall BB" and found TONS of them! and I ate 2 more and brought back 2 more in my hands. what a fatty. and I enjoyed them all to myself. lol what a selfish person. actually, i shared one with my friend! haha

These cookies are so rare; the Claflin bakers don't make them very often. But I found them the other day. I grabbed like 4 or 5 of them, put them in a ziplock bag, and brought them to the Japanese dinner we had. Those cookies recieved highly appreciated and glorified comments.

And.. today, my friend called me at lunch to tell me that those cookies were out again. In no time, i arrive to "dining hall C" and grab like.. 4 or 5 of them. LOL

later in the day, i saw my friend who called me, and she told me that when she went back to her dining hall, there were NONE left. So we just had some cookies that I got earlier today. It brought happiness to us. haha They're the amazing cookies at my college.

The End.

Poppy seed

Did you know that poppy seeds come from poppy flower!? I did not know that until last week. Poppy is my mom's favorite flower, so when I found out about that connection, I was shocked.

Why poppy seed today? because i ate the devil bakery breakfast of the day: poppy bread. I like it. Esp the edge. Edge is the best.

Anyway, so i wikipedia again about poppy. Poppy seeds are used in bagels, muffins, cakes, pasta in Hungary, rice puddings, sweet dumplings, and milk (as traditional Lithuanian Christmas Eve dish). It can also come in the form of oil, apparently.. 

The yeast dumplings with vanilla sauce and poppy seed

Poppy seed pasta. intersting

Poppy seed oil!

Yum..... I'm getting hungry.

I'm sorry, these images are taken from google images.

Japanese dishes!

Japanese gathering last Thursday!

We were all desperately in need of some Japaneseness because of midterms.. 

We made curry and attempted tamagoyaki. We also h

ad omame and dunkin donuts, regular tofu, warm tofu with miso or something from the dining.

Since we didn't go shopping beforehand, we used food from the salad bar. Onions, carrot sticks, broccoli and raisin for curry. Because we didn't cook the curry for a long time, I didn't think that the vegetables were going to be soft enough, but they turned out nice and soft! And it was my first time putting raisin in it, and it was pretty good! and I love broccoli. Good team work!

And I tried making tamago yaki but didn't work out... so changed my plan and made Korean-ish style scrambled egg. I used dozen eggs in total. Mixed the eggs with torigara no moto and soy sauce. Egg dishes are the most difficult ones to make.. I think. 

We enjoyed our meal! Japanese food is the besttttt!

Red Sox baby

Day 3 with Dad!

Asana breakfast:

had Chinese journey with pork dumplings and congee. It came with scallions, cilantro, red vinegar, and soy sauce. The soy was very dark and thick. Pork dumplings were juicyyyy.

Red Sox game was amazing! We were so close to the home plate, near the Red Sox booth! Papa Gino's cheese pizza haha and peanuts! Those peanuts are so hard to de-shell. 

Dinner at Asana. Tomato and olive oil thinly sliced crusty bread, multigrain bread, and white bread. It's Vermont cured butter was slightly salted with some sour taste to it.

Dad and I shared a caesar salad and we both had nasi goreng. Interested non-authentic nasi goreng was very spicy with bits of chili pepper all over. Each grain of rice was pretty big. came with chicken and chicken satay, cucumber and tomato slices. 

I hate saying goodbye.... but I had to do it. I miss him already. I had to listen to Dad's genre of songs on the way back to school. Made me miss him more, but it fit the mood. I love Dad. Thank you for coming over!

a month and six days until I fly back to Tokyo...!

Mandarin Oriental, Celtics, and Oya

Day 2 with Dad!

This morning, we ate downstairs at Asana. 

Started off with their English breakfast tea; as I carried my cup over to my mouth, I was already able to tell the quality difference of the tea from the one I have at the dining hall at the dorm. Already luxury at that point.

There came a mini cocktail of fruit smoothie (strawberry, passion fruit, banana). I think it was all natural, not too sweet. yum.

I ordered the atlantic smoked salmon. Toasted bagel with cream cheese. An option to put little capers, finely chopped red onion, chopped egg (separated into egg yolk and white, cucumber and lemon. The bagel was soft, spread with slight bit of cream cheese (which was good for my dietary intake because i had too much butter last night), sliced tomato, and the main, atlantic smoked salmon. The salmon was thinly sliced; the hotel probably bought it sliced. Some parts were fatty, and it had a good smoked taste to it. I enjoyed my breakfast! Oishikattaaa.

Dad had two soft poached eggs that came with hash browns, vine tomato, and multigrain toast. I have to ask him if the butter was good. Vermont butter.

Dad found the japanese breakfast (miso soup, tofu, seaweed, egg omelet, grilled salmon, steamed rice with umeboshu, kyuri, with green tea), and i was surprised to find a Chinese menu, too. I guess it's Mandarin Oriental. Chinese includes assorted steamed dim sum, plain congee, spring onions, traditional condiments?, jasmine tea and organic soy milk. 

Then walked around Fenway area, and went to the Gardens to watch the Celtics game! Celtics vs. the Chicago Bulls. My first professional basketball game! was excitingggg hehe The Celtics lost, but that's okay because Dad and I had lots of fun anyway. I got a Celtics t-shirt, which everyone else got, too, as a playoff game!

Came back to Prudential center, and decided to have a snack. Ben and Jerry's, although it's not Dad's favorite. We had a newly introduced flavor called, Chocolate Macadamia. It's chocolate and vanilla ice creams with fudge covered macadamia nuts. I think the nuts were salted. I must say that Cold Stone is better. mmm, but B&J was still a good snack.

Oya

Nigiri: Wild bluefin maguro tuna (soy braised garlic, micro greens), soy marinated salmon (truffle oil, gren onion), fried kumamoto oyster (yuzu kosho aioli, squid ink bubbles), Peruvian style toro tuna tataki (aji panca sauce, cilantro pesto), kyoto style enoki mushrooms (garlic, soy), warm eel (thai basil, kabayaki, fresh kyoto sansho), homemade la ratte potato chip (parigord black truffle), ____

Sashimi: kumamoto oyster (watermelon pearls, cucumber mignonette), salmon tartare (cucumber yogurt coulis, argon oil, dill), wild bluefin tuna tataki (smoky pickled onion, truffle oil), hamachi (viet mignonette, thai basil, shallot), shima aji & sea urchin (ceviche vinaigrette, cilantro)

Grilled sashimi of chanterelle & shitake mushrooms (rosemary garlic oil, sesami froth, homemade soy), seared petit strip loin (tiny soked potato, grilled onion, fresh wasabi), house smoked moullard duck tataki (foir gras kabayaki, rima sansho)

Grill 23 & Bar

My dad is visiting for the weekend, and I get to be special this weekend and choose to go to steakhouse for our first dinner together since 3 months ago!

First, I must say I love my dad. He is number one.

Anyway, dinner was with Dad and my friend. We went to Grill 23 in Back Bay. It was my second time. The atmosphere was less crowded than the last time I dined there. I love the open kitchen with bread table right there!

Menu:

Bread: the pumpernickel baguette bread with green raisin was the best. I also tried their flat crispy bread that had some kind of pepper on, their hard bread, and focaccia with mushrooms. I didn't love the focaccia.. but i LOVED their butter. Amazing. I think I probably had half of the butter served for the table. It had salt crystals in it. Delicious salted butter. mmm 

Appetizer- shared chopped up tuna sashimi and hamachi sashimi. They were delicately chopped and sliced. It came with two sauces that were on the side: one green and one red. Couldn't tell what it was, but the red one was a little bit spicy. The portion was really small, though. The hamachi had some sprinkles on top, which I couldn't tell what it was. It came with this bread stick that was really salty and gooooood. sesame in it, i think.

Appetizer 2: crab cakes. came with bitter greens with classic louie dressing (mayo based). I thought it had a little bit too much dressing on, but it was ok. Crab cakes were warm and good!

Main: New York Strip. 14 oz. Medium rare. Very nicely done and very juicy, I loved the way they cooked it. A little bit crispy on the outside and the inside was perfectly done.  Not too fatty either. Came with spicy greens (can't remember the name..!!) and side of caramelized onions. The onions were over salted, but that's okay. I loved it.

Main Dad: Dry-aged Ribeye. 16 oz. Medium rare. It looked delicious. I read that this is one of the restaurant's top menu.

Main Friend: grill 23 earth & ocean. Came with Bacon wrapped prime sirloin, wild trap-caught shrimp (3 pieces), potato au oivre, lobster bordelaise. It looked delicious. Shrimp were pretty big like 2 inches in diameter. 

We shared mushrooms, ginger beets and mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes were really good. I'm not a big fan of them, but it was great. Not too creamy. Best when warm!

Dessert: Carmel Profiteroles. Coffee ice cream was the inside of the profiteroles (ahh! just learned this word!) and it came with crispy candied almonds. The caramel was too much, but the hot chocolate sauce that the chef puts on top was amazingggggg! 

Had a great dining. I loved it. Thank you, Dad!!!

profiterole

Profiterole is another way of saying cream puffs. I just discovered that like two days ago. So i went on wikipedia. both english and japanese. lol

It comes from France! and choux paste makes a pastry bag. It's baked. 

and it's filled ice cream, whipped cream, and custard, pastry cream, (Japanese ppl like putting bean paste)

topped with chocolate sauce or caramel glaze.

More Japanese-ness on this website:

http://www.azabuchou.com/02_menu/

The filling comes in custard, chocolate, caramel, apple cinnamon, sakura, honey lemon, rum raisin, strawberry, maccha, cappuccino, chestnuts, pumpkin, sesame, and earl grey. I swear, japanese people are so creative. 

This cream puff is from a Japanese Douce Patisserie called Monteur. OMG only 105 yen. that's like $1 and a bit.

My mom used to buy us シューアイス。懐かしい。。

and my grandma used to get us jumbo cream puff from Cozy Corner! Loved it.

can't really tell the jumbo-ness in this pic :(

and can't forget this one:

always smells soooo gooood whenever i pass by it.

I just checked their website and noticed they now sell mochi ice cream in Beard Papa's in the U.S. wow..

cream puff deprived.....

Tropical

How about I introduce some Malaysian food today. During summer 2008, my family visited Langkawi and  Kuala Lampur, spent some time relaxing in the tropics.

This is Mee Mamak. Malaysian dish (maybe Indonesian): egg noodles with boiled eggs and veggies served with some kind of sauce... fish sauce?

This was our bedtime snack that the hotel provided. 

I can't remember how it tasted, but was fried and 

I don't think it was sweet. 

Pure mango juice at the bar. So thick and yummy!

This is from a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. This is mango pudding that my sister ordered. 

It came with cut kiwi, strawberries, mango, dragon fruit and chocolate on the side!

I miss being in a warm place...!

Japanese-ness

Last weekend, I decided to cook some rice! The rice was a little mushier than I wanted it to be, but I was satisfied eating Japanese rice! I put these two sprinkles on it. oh my gosh. these are the BEST. It was my first time trying "hijiki & torisoboro" mou hontoni oishiiyo! i was going to have one bowl of rice but ikioide there went three bowls. haha このふりかけ見つけたら買って食べてみたらいいとおもう。是非おすすめ！

あと、木曜日あたりかな？に卵スープ！

ちょっとお湯の量が少なかったせいか、味が濃かった笑

次に日本のペストリー。ってアメリカでもありそうなペストリーだけど、友達がNJのMITSUWAのベーカリーからの差し入れとしてくれました！すごい良い香りだった。ありがとう！

a-sa from Okinawa

So my mom and my sister went to Okinawa in March, and they sent me this seaweed that originates in Okinawa called, "a-sa-." My mom kindly sent a package of miso soup and tofu thing to add to have it together. arigato<3 Ahh japanese-ness!