Thursday, May 31, 2012

Ootoya



Woah, it's finally cool and breezy outside again, and if I don't think too hard about the smell of lingering trash, it almost feels like summer time in Seattle. So anyway, this new Japanese restaurant finally opened down the block from work, Ootoya. I think this restaurant has locations all over the world, so some people were really hyped about it. It's great! I took it as a good sign that lots of people around me were speaking Japanese and that our hostess didn't really seem to speak anything except Japanese. I feel like if I'm not eating Japanese food that isn't sushi or ramen, I'm eating mediocre to soggy tempura, overly fried tonkatsu, really salty miso soup, or too much cabbage with kewpie mayonaise... I mean, am I right guys?? I think I know a lot more about good Japanese food (outside of sushi) in theory than I do in practice. So I was really pumped. And Yasu said it was really good and I trust him.

Katsu don (tonkatsu/breaded pork on rice with an egg)
The best part about this was that the runny, half cooked yolk made the rice get all creamy and but not eggy tasting (for all you weirdos who don't like eggs??). Plus mixed with the salty, crunchy pork and soy sauce, it was some lunch. The whole lunch set was huge! You can see in the top picture it came with pickled vegetables, steamed egg, and miso soup.

 David's rice bowl with all sorts of sashimi


Sunday, May 27, 2012

2 more sandwiches

Yeah, sandwiches all the time, just can't get enough.

Eggs with tomatoes and leeks and cheddar, plus homefries
I don't even know the name of the place I ate this at, somewhere on the corner of Myrtle and Classon. It was good, fine, ok, just your standard breakfast food that lots of places like to overcharge you for but not here, so it's worth it. And also, I like leeks but never buy them. And they're so nice to you too.

Duck prosciutto from the farmer's market, cheese (I forget what kind, really soft and almost melty, but that could also just be the horrible armpit-like humidity kicking in), and pea shoots
Duck prosciutto is amazing. I don't even know how to describe how good it is, but the best parts are all those fatty bits that make you want to cry when you eat it, it's like butter melting in your mouth. You know, but better, because just melting a pat of butter in your mouth is absolutely disgusting.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

2 sandwiches

Breakfast sandwich with bacon, egg, spinach and cheese

 "Classic" Banh Mi from Hanco's
I biked here with Molly yesterday because it was finally not raining and I wanted to ride my bike and get better at it, which mostly means I want my legs to stop feeling like they are going to fall off of my body. Biking in this city is terrifying. But eating the food you biked for is rewarding, I guess.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

lunch n dinner

Soba with sesame oil and balsamic vinegar (not as weird as it maybe sounds) with peas and radishes


From Habana Outpost
Guacamole and chips, veggie taco, roasted corn with cotija cheese and cayenne pepper

Apparently "veggie taco" just means a guacamole and salsa taco, which is really a-ok with me but is sort of tricky of them to call it a taco. Like, come on. I liked it though. The corn was really the best though. The super sweetness of it balances so well with the salty cheese, but the cayenne pepper was too spicy for me, even though I liked how it tasted. I dropped the lime before I could get any juice action but I bet it would've been good. 

Saturday, May 19, 2012

pizza all the time

I wanted the satisfaction of having a whole pizza to myself without actually having to buy a whole pizza. So Molly and I made personal pizzas...but I guess saying that we made them might be a little bit of an overstatement...I got pizza dough from Trader Joe's. I think "prepared" is a more accurate way to describe it. The bag says it will make one 12 inch pizza, and we made two 6 inch ones, but I think that it can make even bigger pizzas because the crust was a little too thick for my liking. The dough is good in a really "I used to eat this after school all the time in 6th grade" way.

 Tomato, basil, and mozzarella from the farmer's market. It's the perfect trio of pizza toppings, you don't wanna mess with it, but it is so hard to resist pepperoni.

Good old pepperoni pizza

Monday, May 14, 2012

london broil


I wanted meat. I was going to say "it's been so long since I've had meat," but that's not true, especially since I think I'm still carrying around some of that meatloaf. And I also just ate a hamburger. I just like being a carnivore, I guess. I decided to do a london broil (which I learned is a cooking method, not a cut of meat) because it's a good way to cook inexpensive cuts of meat. I use this recipe and had it with steamed lamb's quarters, which is an edible weed-type plant I believe. I saw them at the farmer's market and tried some cooked samples because I had no idea what they were, and it was so good! It's sort of hard to describe, like a cross between spinach and kale, maybe? I did get too generous with the salt though, and they would have been just fine without any. Whoops

Saturday, May 12, 2012

birthdays

So many people at work have May birthdays, and it was a really gluttonous celebration. I was more excited for these birthdays than I ever am for my own, mostly because any overeating I do can be blamed on the birthday people. Like..."I only ate more cake because I'm trying to celebrate your birthday, this is all for you, not me. I'm selfless." Right?

Chocolate raspberry torte made by the amazing Kathy for Justin's birthday
This is my favorite combination for anything sweet. I usually am not a big sweets person, but if I had a reasonable excuse, I could eat this whole thing by myself.  There was also fresh whipped cream, just FYI guys. Also, sorry about the poor attempt at "enhancing" this photo on my iPhone. That's what you get.

 Justin's mom's peanut butter and m&m cookies, perfect combo of soft and chewy, plus nice and chunky. I can only imagine how good they would have tasted with iced milk. Yeah, ice in milk.

Wonderful birthday guy #1, Justin! 

Kyle and Jeremy's birthday took a more savory route, and we had meatloaf sandwiches. Holy cow (ha this joke will never not be funny), they were so good. I didn't grow up eating meatloaf and I think it has this weird "gross food" association for a lot of people, maybe because it's called "meatloaf." I mean, when you give a food a vague name like that, it leaves room for really dangerous interpretations of what that food should/could be. But anyway, I always thought I would like it, because, what's not to like? I've never had a bad meatloaf experience, but this was by far the best.

Italian meatloaf in log form with slicing action, made by amazing Kathy's amazing husband Richard. He also made the terrine from Ann's party, so he knows his way around a sliceable chunk of mixed meat. It was ground beef and mixed with sweet Italian sausage, swirled with sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella. Sounds great, yeah? It was. I've been sneaking bites of this from the fridge.

All sliced up, check out the cheese and tomato-basil swirls

 Salad with pea shoots, mixed greens, edible flowers (I dont know what kind), oranges, and cucumbers!

Bread fresh from the Whole Foods bakery, avocado, mozzarella from the farmer's market, and a little bit of arugula peeking out

And of course we had potato chips, plus all the condiments you need, including some really intensely sour pickles from the market...I'm not sure how I feel about them. I'll have to just keep eating more until I figure it out.  The post-lunch coma was like being full up to my eyeballs. I'm still a little full from it, honestly.

Wonderful birthday dudes #2 and #3, Kyle and Jeremy! We put candles in the meatloaf.

And that doesn't even include all the birthdays in May...

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

smorgasburg

 Fish taco with cilantro, cabbage, some sauce...limes
I've been wanting a fish taco forever and this was exactly what I had in mind the whole time. The fish was super crispy on the outside but soft and flaky on the inside, not greasy. Then the vegetables added a nice crunch and coolness.

This looked good but only tasted "ok." It was supposed to be this weird fusion between Finnish bread and sashimi...so on the right, it's rye bread with mushed peas(??) and sashimi, forget what fish though and nori on top. On the left is fennel and something else, tuna, beets, and ginger. Each part was good on it's own but didn't really go very well together.