#made beef and broccoli the first time... lots of things for the first time tbh

[emordnilap-fr]

18. A memorable meal this year?

OK HONESTLY ive had a good number of memorable meals this year !! some because they were good, some because they were so bad i will never forget them afjstjstj

thanksgiving i met with some friends for the first time so that counts!!

otherwise the night i made vegetarian lasagna so my sister could also have some while also making pretty drinks with that color-changing gin was GOOD. lasagna turned out very tasty and i had a lot to drink it was fun

[keefwho]

May 04 - 2024 Saturday

12:07am

5/10

This morning I took a long shower while watching a group play Sketchys Contract. For breakfast I was hesitant but I made a VERY round tortilla and made corned beef hash with onions and stuff to put in it like a soft shell taco. After eating I threw mushrooms, beans, broccoli, and sausage in the slow cooker for a beef ricearoni lunch. The first part of my morning was spent preparing for book club. The topics this chapter were heavy and gave me a lot to think about and apply to my life. It got to be so much that I knew I had to take a break before I continued. While waiting for lunch I played KSP and watched the streamer Squeex play Star Wars game. I stuck with this for a few hours until I ate lunch and had to finish up the book club stuff a couple hours before. When it was time, TK, ZZ, and NJ showed up for it. We were afraid it was only going to be me and TK for a minute there but we were okay with that. The book club went fine aside from NJ having some closeminded and annoying opinions regarding the emotions we discussed today. I guess he did provide his unique view which is heavily valued here. I got off after that and was going to play WT until DS responded. She did and we got in VR. We did a puzzle of a dead lamb painting and then I showed her shotgun roulette which I barely won. Then we jumped to question answering which was fun as always. BD and DR joined which was nice but I wish I could have included them better. Tbh I was hoping for a night without anyone joining but they weren't unwelcome. They seemed to mostly talk with each other while we played the game. Then we hopped to a world to watch the New Digital Circus which was amazing, I love the show so much. As we were hopping off, this weirdo joined who I unfriended afterwards. In bed we made up for old puzzles and then talked a lot about grief and other such things. We also covered that kind of stuff in VRchat while DV was there which was nice.

[missguomeiyun]

Homecookings [Nov ed]

Hi all!

This month, I finished reading Kim Un-su’s “The Cabinet”. It definitely took me a while to get into. By “a while”, I mean like maybe the first 2 chapters. The novel is continuous but every chapter, it talks about 1 “case”, until you read the final 3rd of the novel. While I don’t think you can (/should) open up to a chapter & just start reading, it does have short story vibes. So it was interesting! I don’t really know what genre it fits in either. There’s a bit of everything... like thriller, sci-fi, realist... you should just read it!

Okay, homecooking food this month~

I tried out this brand of dumpling.

The wrapper was thin & cooks fast! The filling for this particular flavour was kind of disappointing. Perhaps bcos the main ingredient is glass noodles, there really much content inside. There was a lot of empty space in the dumpling. The flavour was good though- I’d give it 4/10 for spicy level, which means it was quite mild.

Homemade pho (via Instant Pot)

Made some flaxseed pancakes that I’ve incorporated parmesan cheese into.

Cheonggukjang (with pork belly meat), braised eggplant & rice.

Cold noodles with the radish broth (that was at room temp lol!) with tons of Korean seaweed flakes added. This was awesome!

Pork belly with my raclette grill that I got for my mom as Mothers’ Day gift hahaha!! Tried grilling cheese directly on the grill like above & wowwwww *drools* I love the crusty cheese texture so much!

After we finished the pork belly, we poured off the oil but as you can see, there was still quite a bit left on the grill, so then we grilled “sticky rice patties” on it. Turned out surprisingly delicious! I thought the rice would fall apart but maybe bcos it was sticky rice, it didn’t become disintegrated. The exterior was crisp & some pieces had nice grill marks.

Fettuccine with herb cream & corn!!!

My one-pot meal that contains a lot of good stuff like nurungji, flattened rice cake, dumplings & napa cabbage. Essentially it’s like a ddeok mandu guk but I added nurungji & perilla seed powder :D

Here comes the ‘everything’ noodle soups lol basically all the random soup noodles I’ve made this month. As you know, noodle soup is my staple :P I can do a month without rice but I can’t go a week without noodles. ..

Beef + daikon soup with udon

Busan fish cake + bokchoy with thick rice noodles

My “leftovers” rice noodles haha so all that peas & broccoli stuff was from a stir-fry the night before. I dumped that in the water with fish cake & napa cabbage.

Red miso pork belly with mixed greens & udon

Veggie + beef soup with thick rice noodles

It’s been a while.. . ddeok-mandu soup! :D YUM!

Chicken & napa cabbage with (thin) rice noodles in a spicy garlic broth. It has a spoon of spicy garlic sauce that my mom made & some fish sauce.

Talk to you soon!! I have a lot of posts lined up~ But at the same time, you’ll just have to wait for them.... I have a lot to do these days... AT HOME (while working full time shift work)!! As you probably are aware, a “5th wave” of C*vid is not an impossibility with a new powerhouse mutant coming out. Despite ppl & things have &/or are resuming normalcy with vaccine passports to visit restaurants & facilities, I’m content with this home-body lifestyle tbh (& oddly, can carry on for another year or 2 lol!). Ppl will likely disagree & think I’m crazy but I feel like this almost-2-year period has given me so much me time that I would likely NEVER have had if it were “normal”. Does that even make sense? Like what I mean is, I genuinely feel for those who have been sick & have lost loved ones (& esp post-secondary students who have experienced educational delays & cancellations of stuff), but on a personal level, I’ve gained knowledge & new skills, & used my time effectively. I don’t have the mindset of “we’ve wasted the past 18 months, unable to go anywhere or do anything fun, etc...” So yeah.. that’s me haha

[wastethen8]

50 questions you've never been asked before

I was tagged by the beautiful @lukesflaredpants ❤ thank you

1. what is the colour of your hair brush? blush pink and lavender lol it's a tangle teezer

2. name of a food you never eat? broccoli

3. are you typically too warm or too cold? too cold but I don't mind it

4. what were you doing 45 minutes ago? watching tv and chilling with my mom

5. what's your favourite candy bar? oof...I like bounty cause I love coconut

6. have you ever been to a professional sports event? nope

7. what is the last thing you said out loud? thank you

8. what is your favorite ice cream? anything with cookie dough or cake stuff

9. what is the last thing you had to drink? orange soda

10. do you like your wallet? I do! I got it on my last shopping spree in london!

11. what was the last thing you ate? chocolate

12. did you buy any new clothes last week? nope

13. last sporting event you watched? I don't really watch anything sports related...maybe football/soccer

14. what's your favourite flavour of popcorn? just sweet caramelized popcorn

15. who was the last person you sent a message to? a friend of mine

16. ever go camping? only as a school trip which was the most horrible trip ever!! let's just say I had to sleep on top of a gully, there was a wasp's nest, I got hella bullied, a schoolmate burned water lmao and I had to do the dishes in a frickin plastic bag...

17. do you take vitamins? I do, vitamin d cause I don't get enough sun lol

18. do you go to church every sunday? nope...I'm not religious and never was...but I used to go cause I was part of a church choir

19. do you have a tan? nah

20. do you prefer chinese food or pizza? PIZZA ALL THE WAY!! but I do love a good chinese dish

21. do you drink soda with a straw? only in the cinema or something

22. what colour socks do you wear? rn? grey fluffy ones

23. do you ever drive above the speed limit? I don't drive, no license

24. what terrifies you? uh, a lot!! death, disappointing people, trust, spiders lol ...

25. look to your left, what do you see? a magazine

26. what chore do you hate? doing the dishes

27. what do you think of when you hear an australian accent? 5 seconds of summer, duh

28. what's your favourite soda? sprite

29. do you go into fast food places or drive thru? drive thru

30. who was the last person you talked to? my mom

31. favourite cut of beef? what? I don't eat much beef so I guess idk

32. last song you listened to? everywhere by niall horan

33. last book you read? no idea tbh but I'm listening to an audiobook if that counts...raven cycle, it was recommended to me by my friend

34. can you say the alphabet backwards? I tried and I can but it takes me A WHILE

35. how do you like your coffee? with a lot of milk, maybe a bit of caramel or cinnamon lol

36. favourite pair of shoes? my converse and my docs

37. the time you normally go to bed? well I go to bed at like 10/11 pm but if we're talking sleep...LATER...especially now in quarantine

38. the time you normally wake up? uh 9-10am but on a work day around 6:30am

39. what do you prefer, sunrise or sunset? sunset, SUUUUPER ROMANTIC

40. how many blankets are on your bed? one and a little cuddly one

41. describe your kitchen plates? uhm...they're white -ish with a grey stripe and a pink stripe around them

42. do you have a favourite alcoholic beverage? I love cocktails especially stuff with rum in it

43. do you play cards? not really

44. what colour is your car? I don't have one but our family car's colour is called "cashmere" lmao

45. can you change a tire? I probably could if you give me TIME lol I'll figure it out

46. your favourite province? no idea, sorry

47. favourite job you've had? the one I currently have cause it's my first one

48. how did you get your biggest scar? I guess emotional scars don't count lol I'd say the one of the hole that I had in my head. I got it cause I fell down a ladder right on top of a broken sewing machine, it's a crazy story tbh

49. favourite day of the week? maybe saturday

50. what did you do today that made someone happy? I help my mom with her home office work

damn this was LOOOONG but fun lmao

I tag @glitterlukey @iloveluek @parkerrpeter @shawn-and-harry

[abyss-mal-blog1]

a saturday i felt everything was too much

27th april, 2019 

i: 

- woke up in the morning feeling anxious about my project i have a day for

- i am even anxious that i am typing about it but i’m going to do a quickie 

- contemplated going to brooklyn’s YTTP and do hot yoga there but i was LAZY i didn’t go and lijun called me and told me about some things i found weird about (and also about her going back to chung cheng) 

- she hung up abruptly and i started to stress-eat food   (some leftover digestives, cheese, banana, i think two oranges) 

- changed, squeezed into my jeans, and left to meet eshaa and pira! met eshaa on the L train station we happened to get on the same carriage which was such a coincedenz

- pira overslept, spent a windy lunch time at smorgasburg 

- food was okay (many choices actually for a food fair somehow it remind sme of my high school friends and how much they’ll like it if i brought them there) but i felt like mentally i wasn’t in the right state to enjoy it - was it because i was too full 

- on the L train on the way to bedford ave (read: L train - avoid when you can!! especially on weekends) as i was looking at eshaa i just felt like i was in a separate state, like i’m living another reality. you know those shows that have th protagonist living a simulation? i felt like that, like i’m not truly present there and my mind and body are kinda separate and i have to act a certain way in public to “keep up” with what i have to do 

- ordered a raclette burger because i always wanted to try the cheese + the patty looked good to me - half regretted because i was fucking full 

- i wanted ice cream but i didn’t want those folded kinds from 10below and i was kinda bored of walking around the place multiple times so we just got churros and left 

- went to mcnally jackson (am thinking about this book i wanna read right now -how to date men when you hate men) (lol i am sure this tells you a lot of my current headspace), some stores, walked around a lil bit 

- i felt bad for 1. not giving eshaa anything - i have a new orleans shot glass to give to her!! its k next time 2. asking her to try my beef burger f can i be more culturally sensitive 

- alighted at union sq, grabbed some van leeuwen’s at whole foods to bring to clara and my cousin’s party because i love that shit 

- tbh really didn’t feel and in my whole mind i wanted to cancel the meeting at 4 - i didn’t though because i didn’t want to be that person + i thought it might be good for me 

- i was nervous and bought the most horrible tasting gluten free cookie from news bar on the way home - i have no self control (it was $4) it was also coconut avocado i am going to start baking my own stuff now. 

- (channeling what greyson chance said) you gotta be patient with yourself 

- oprah: the best thing you can give yourself is time 

- me: *impulse eats and buys when i am nervous* 

- anyway, finally got my ass home, really nice weather while walking through the park, changed to my leggings bc f me 

- wanted to wear my blazer, luckily i didn’t because he wore a blazer too, he be lookin dapper 

- a little too dapper to go record shopping in the village & for what we about to do, but you know it was okay i appreciate the effort 

- at the beginning, you know, a lil awkward, a lil extended glances on the face and eye contact 

- we went to the record store i’ve always walked past but never entered on bleecker...and saw seth rogen! 

- tbh was a lil out of my element but it’s okay i am learning to get into the element you needa start somewhere ya kno

- interesting guys working at the record store 

- i wanted to buy something but i didn’t because i didn’t have a turntable and i am broke 

- we got coffee and walked to the park 

- i got an iced coffee but i shoulda gotten an espresso like he did because, too much liquid yo 

- speaking about liquids i feel like i need to go on a detox juice cleanse 

- walked to the park and sat by the jazz area

- chatted a lil. programming buddies?

- 6pm, i needed to get wine, we went together and even picked up some stuff from morton williams. it all felt very adult-like, picking up wine and groceries, kinda lol to be doing this on an apparent date but ok, cool cool 

- went back home and got changed, saw nicole called out to her, she was napping and closed the door

- got my ass out of the apartment, cousin told me about clara’s unfortunate wallet-and-passport-losing situation, went to uncle ted’s and talked a lil 

- thought his party was gonna be chill and i could do work but fuck 

- it’s okay though i got a lot out of it i met cool and interesting people 

- drank enough for the party to have fun 

- everyone seems really cool - amber, khoo, weijie was lol, talked to erica (yay cs!) clara, annoying guy, xia, it was fun last night 

- i am thankful for my cousin for throwing parties tho i feel like i wanna throw a grad party for him, kinda like a send off. it’ll be thatschic’s level of party 

- went home, tried to confide in chloe, urges was so strong i walked down to mamoun’s

- didn’t get anything bc broke ass bitch, i went back home, cooked all my soba noodles and opened my mala sauce pack, made a lot of noise and heartburn 

- (writing this on sunday morning) regrets

- the first few broccoli was good tho, with the sauce 

- i died after because it was too spicy 

- i am talking too much about food 

- when will was sharing with me about his relationship with food i enjoy it actually

- he talked about making crepes!

- 

[12setsofchopsticks]

What's For Dinner Tonight?

What do I eat here? A lot of different things! One question I get asked by literally all of my classes is “what is your favorite Japanese food?”

Okay, maybe it’s more like “Japanese food…you like??”

But yes, I tend to say the easy “oh, yes I like Japanese food very much! My favorite foods to eat are sushi and ramen!” which is 100% true, but I’ve found there is so much more to Japanese cuisine than just ramen and sushi! I think I can definitely say that my international food palette has expanded. I have tried so many new and interesting foods, some have been good, others…not so much (please see the liver incident).

Everyone knows about sushi and ramen, but let me tell you about some of the “lesser known” foods I enjoy that are common here:

JAPANESE CURRY

Oh yes. This is one food in particular that I have really come to love.

WHO KNEW that curry, a food we usually think of as being unique to Indian cuisine in America, would be such a culinary staple in Japan? First things first, Japanese curry is distinctly different from it’s Indian cousin. Indian curry tastes like, well, curry. Japanese curry tastes like heaven. I really can’t describe the taste of Japanese curry; it’s just like spicy gravy goodness over rice and some sort of friend meat. I also have no idea what it *really* is, but goddamn do I love it.

ALSO I feel like I must add that my bias is partly due to the fact that I live literally right above a CoCo Curry house so the restraint I need to not eat there every night is EXTREME. At first it was kind of a running joke that I would go to CoCo Curry everyday but now it’s become frighteningly close to reality. OOPS.

OMURICE

Omurice gets its name from the words “omelet” and “rice” and that basically sums it right up; it’s a thin, cooked egg filled with ketchup-fried rice and topped with MORE ketchup. Like I just mentioned, the rice is usually ketchup-flavored (which tastes much better than it sounds) and stir fried with chicken and vegetables, but I have seen variations like beef stroganoff, seafood, and (OMG!!!) curry! I am not sure why Japanese people love ketchup so much.

HISTORICAL NOTE: I find the very idea of omurice to be kind of hilarious, because it was basically what Japanese people thought western food was like. To be fair, it is one of the closest Japanese foods I’ve found to resemble brunch so they weren’t too far off in their assumptions.

YAKISOBA

Yakisoba is what I get when I think I’ve ordered lo mein. It’s basically the same as the westernized Chinese staple, but the flavors are slightly different. This is another festival-favorite and usually a failsafe for me to get at the conbini when I don’t trust any of the other options. It’s usually packed with veggies and a generous helping of pickled ginger (the pink stuff) which I promptly pick out every time.

Fun fact! They also sell yakisoba rolls – meaning sub rolls filled with yakisoba – at the conbini for when you get that ~*special hankering*~ for carbs.

OKONOMIYAKI

The only thing more fun than saying okonomiyaki is eating it. When I first came to Japan and was like “what is this food called okonomonaki” first, they laughed at me cause I said it wrong, then they said it was “japanese pancake” and I guess technically they aren’t wrong, but you won’t find me (or anyone for that matter) eating an okonomiyaki doused in syrup in the morning for breakfast.

Okonomiyaki can contain a number of different ingredients within the batter, but often you will encounter the usual suspects like cabbage, egg, and some sort of protein like bacon, octopus, shrimp, etc. It’s cooked like a pancake and then served with special sauce and mayo on top. There are plenty of dedicated okonomiyaki shops around, but they are also a common food found at street vendors during festivals.

Side note: I have a pair of socks that have okonomiyaki on them and every time I wear them to school, my students go bananas.

TAKOYAKI

Closely related to okonomiyaki is takoyaki. Takoyaki means fried octopus ball so, of course, there usually is octopus somewhere in there. However, I’ve seen vegetarian takoyaki or takoyaki with lil hotdog bits in them. They are made by putting batter in a special takoyaki pan that has round recesses for the balls to form. Every time I see someone making these lil balls delight I’m like “okay there is no way that is going to become round” but somehow every time they come out looking like perfect globes and I don’t understand how they do it.

Every time I get these, I eat them in one bite and every time it is a huge mistake because the inside is always hotter than the molten core of the Earth and I apparently don’t know how to learn from my mistakes. SAD!

ON THE TOPIC OF FOOD:

One thing I really didn’t anticipate when I moved to Tokyo was that I would basically have to learn how to cook all over again.

There are two reasons for this:

The first is because my Japanese supermarkets do not offer the same foods that the American supermarkets I used to frequent did. This seems obvious! Of course a Japanese supermarket is not going to have things like Oreos or Ritz crackers…or one would think. Actually, it’s quite easy to find Oreos and Ritz crackers, but I have an incredibly difficult time finding things like Italian sausage, many types of cheese, and chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (still looking for that one, btw). So basically, while products tend to be easy to find, some of the ingredients that used to be staples in my cooking seemingly don’t exist in this country (it’s hell-ery trying to find celery. Why?). Not to mention that when I do go grocery shopping, all of the labels are in Japanese. Ask me about the time I accidentally got decaf coffee or sun-dried tomatoes instead of roasted red peppers. I’ve since learned hiragana and katakana, but it’s still slow-going in the supermarket and to this day I still have no idea what kind of meat I’ve been buying.

The second reason is because of the restrictions of my kitchen itself. My apartment is small. Really small. “Do I even have a kitchen?” is probably a better question than “how big is your kitchen?” Yes, the sad reality is that I have only one induction-heat burner and NO oven. I do, however, have a rice cooker and a toaster oven. How has this impacted my cooking? Well, obviously I can’t use any recipe that requires baking. I also can’t cook things separately (for example, broccoli sautéing in one pan, pasta boiling in another) without it taking forever and getting cold. I’ve had to get rethink my recipes and have now become a huge fan of one-pot meals, not that I wasn’t before, but now I am an even BIGGER fan that I was. This means doing a lot of things like skipping the step where you boil the pasta and throwing it right in the pot with the sauce (which actually makes it more delicious anyways). Space is, of course, a huge issue as well, so I’ve gotten quite crafty, especially with hooks and shower rings, to effectively utilize all my vertical space for storage.

Also - holy hell, how had I gotten this far in life without a rice cooker? That little machine is like god’s gift to humanity. Literally just push one button and there it is, perfect rice. I’ve recently tried experimenting with making different flavors of rice in it with mixed results. I’m sure I’ll get coconut curry rice down after a few more tries B-)

Full disclosure: I only wrote this blog post because I am SO hungry and still have a half hour until lunch time OMG I’m gonna starve.

Also, I have no idea what's for dinner tonight. Probably CoCo Curry, TBH. LOL.

RELEVANT VOCAB:

まいにちCoCoカレー (mai-ni-chi Co-co Ka-ray) - Everyday Coco Curry