Tonjiru

so there was SANDY! phew! lost public transportation access, electricity, hot water, tireeed, BUT now all solved!! well not all but close to it, and my heart goes out to those who still dont have access to the necessary things that take you through this cold weather.

It's actually really cold! all of a sudden. must be the day light saving time change thing that happened as well, just really chilly and im not ashamed to pull out my puffy down jacket (which i initially pulled out since I was walking across brooklyn bridge...its windy up there!!).  Because of the cold, I made Tonjiru! I know im not the only one since I met a friend earlier today at a japanese super market buying the exact same ingredients to make the exact same thing (great minds think alike- or all japanese ppl think alike!).

I forgot to add frozen satoimo in the beginning so by the time i added it, it was too late and made it mushy but its good. its warm. its so, much, better, than what i was eating for the past week in the dark!!

Goto udon

got Goto udon noodles from someone who went back to Japan, and added beansprout marinated in garlic and sesame oil &sesame with raw egg.

Thats all I did, but it was unpredictably extremely good!!!

raw egg in itself kind of becomes a sauce that enhances other flavors in a rich creamy way.

so easy, SO good!

chicken cream stew

today started bright and warm, but then took a quick turn and became rather cold and chilly...

Hence! chicken cream stew!

i made a mountain of it, but noticed how my boyfriend dislikes carrots so picked out all of them and ate it myself... it's good, but not that great when you eat a bag full of baby carrots stewed at once!

easy cheesy BBQ fondue

this, I think is pretty genius!!!

I'm sure i've seen it on cookpad before, but just recently was reminded of it by a very outdoorsy friend who told me how cheese fondue is best to do outdoors cus the smell wont stick to your kitchen walls.

this is extremely easy; carve off the top of brie cheese, place on aluminum foil and put it on BBQ grill till the cheese melts!! eaaasy peeesy :)

cold remedy

cold remedy of the day; apple

i pealed the entire apple in one go! :D

random

I haven't been too good posting recently, and now that I sit down and try to look for things to post, it's simply because I have nothing too exciting to write!

Here, I note my random leftover lunches and bar food dinners...

summer rolls that my friend brought over the other day.  He has this extreme fear of becoming hungry, so always walks around with extra food- but he is one of the skinniest people alive.  This day, he wasnt hungry and left this at my place, so lucky me, I got to take it to work for lunch! and it was great!

Goto udon yakisoba.  at Umi no ie, one of their specialties happens to be their goto udon noodles served either with soup or cold broth, but I wanted their Fujinomiya yakisoba, which they hadn't, so they made yakisoba out of goto udon specially for me!! SO, GOOD!!!

ahhh, good ol' Habitat wing tuesdays!! 25c/wing and ate 10? while everyone else prob had 6 or so each, still its $2.5....and really good wings!!! one of the best things in Green point.

This is the ultimate "i dont want to tell my mother i had only this for lunch cus she's going to move in with me to cook" lunch.  I didnt have time to go buy lunch, so made do with things that were handy... hey, they're all good! just not the ideal lunch set...

birthday risotto

to be specific it's post birthday but in my mind its going to be my BD for the entire month!
anyways, this risotto is a creature of beauty! labor of love! whatever you want to call it, ITS FREAKIN GOOD!!!!

the soup was a gift from my friend Yuji who is the force behind the amazing Yuji ramen (god please can he just start his own restaurant asap!!) who made it as a result of intense three hour stewing of veggies and red octopus and pork..... the soup itself is to die for!!!!

the gelatin in it becomes this gorgeous golden pink that frizzles once refrigerated.  I just added cream and rice and its as good as what angels eat in heaven (my version of heaven at least). 

the chicken was also amazing! Thank you Yujisan!!!

one egg, divided into two, united in my tummy...

i made this spaghetti with natto and egg yolk mixed with salty combu that i found on cookpad.

It's a great thing! but I just hated how i would waste the egg white, so i made egg white miso soup to accompany the spaghetti, utilizing the entire egg and taking in lots of soy beans!!

Kajitsu

I went to Kajitsu the other day! it's my first time here, and it's probably because it's a place that is strictly vegetarian and I dont have that many friends who are like that...

I for one am def a meat person but this, was, great!!! Japanese Shojinryouri sensibility at it's best, it was SO, GOOD!!

this looks like fish but it's actually yuba! 

chilled corn soup. 

umeboshi flavor cold somen

fired avocado and mochi-fu! 

desert 1 

little tea candy with maccha! 

just eating here makes me feel like i did something good to myself!

I hope i get to come back again soon :)

Thank you Cookpad!!! Tanabata version☆

This, is, EPIC!!!!!

my recipe for sesame somen dip was chosen as the top recipe of the day for cookpad!!!!!

I repeat, THIS IS EPIC!!!!!!!

cookpad.com (this will only show for 7/7/2012)

recipe itself; http://cookpad.com/recipe/1489205

Amazing. I cant get over this. Ohhh dear oh dear oh dear!!!!

The recipe itself is simple, a sesame dip for somen, along with okura (shaped as ☆ when sliced) and tenkasu (Ten means heaven) for added taste of course but the pun is how they go along with the Tanabata theme.

I dont think I ever had a better Tanabata in my life!!!!

Thank you cookpad☆

a very Modern lunch

went to lunch at one of my favorite places in town, the Modern at MoMA.

quail! with mac&cheese Modern style :)

nice sculpture garden view~

desert. coffee&ice cream sundae.

felt like a grownup lol

sesame dip somen

Thanks to all the cookpad users searching for Tanabata themed dishes, my sesame dip somen with okura as stars! just got 10 reports and is now on the front page :D

http://cookpad.com/recipe/1489205

Squid ink paella

we had such a great run this season for Paella, im afraid im a little emotional when we got to the point of squid ink paella! We Came So Far!!! Lol

we got squids to use for topping.

the leggy things are used for flavoring..

it takes a LOT of squids to collect ink, but the greatness that is squid ink mix! comes to the rescue :D 

red peppers added-they become soft even without grilling them first. 

green peas. 

and its done!!!!! 

slightly moist yet yummy crunchyness... 

yumyumyumyumyum.......... 

Gochisosama deshita!!!! 

see how its still doing the subtle bubbly thing? that means, its close, but not yet!

patience my friend.... in the end, the wait it Absolutely worth it~~~!!!

Aji soba kake soba

today's aji soba; kake soba!

Instead of dipping in cold soup, I poured hot soup over it making the aji soba a soba noodle soup dish.

Maybe better cold...I could have used some chicken as well.

Still good!

Aji Soba

I've been having acute laryngitis and CANT SAY A WORD!!!

The only sound that comes out of my mouth sounds like a dying horse or something... depressing! 

But then, friends prevail to save me!

My friend's father visited the other day and brought Nanbu Aji Soba!!

I was so excited to have this gem of Iwate that I couldnt decide what to do for topping...and made a bunch!!

When in doubt, do it all! do it all, the, way :D

Even the sobayu was great.

I still dont have a voice but feel better. Thanks☆

Dieci

My friend from Japan is visiting, and wanted to go out for Italian.  After agreeing to Japanese-Italian, I was super thrilled to book a table at Dieci!!
Tucked in a half basement little corner in the LES, this is one of my favorite wine places as well.

Oysters, with interesting relishes.

misozuke beef

yuzu pepper ponzu marinated tuna avocado 

and then UNIIIIII♥♥♥
sea urchin in other words, this one was a great eggy combination of uni, caviar on top of scrambled eggs :) 

uni with cheese and yuzu foam

Uni Pasta!!!!!

Oh yeah was AWESOME!!!!

Gochisosamadeshita :D