Fooding and shopping with the dad!
Sun, Aug. 13th, 2006 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterMy dad is here on his quarterly business trip, which means free food for me! We first went to a so-so Japanese place. I've now become the ordering person and tried very hard to persuade my dad that he wanted to get the beef tataki instead of a more boring bento combo of tonkatsu and yaki niku. Alas, no. I think we would have been better off with the beef tataki. We also had a very strange roll with something like General Tso's chicken on top. Again, quite odd. But I also got hirame usuzukuri, which I adore! It's very thin slices of hirame with a tangy ponzu sauce poured on top. It wasn't the best I've had, but I never get to have it much anyway. And agedashi tofu.
After that, I desperately wished that I were in LA so I could go to Furaibo and have real izakaya food, as opposed to a somewhat pale imitation of it. I need to find out if there are any izakayas around here, because for some reason, it feels more "real" than sushi places do. I also need to find a good Japanese curry place as well. It's just funny, because when I did homestay in Japan, we ate more of that type of thing than sushi, largely because we were trying to save money.
Then I complained to my dad for a good four hours about work! Poor dad.
Today, I managed to drag myself out of bed and make it to the farmers' market! Yes, I do manage to do this most of the time, but every day, it is an accomplishment! I mean... this is how much the farmers' market means to me. I actually forgo sleeping in on Sundays.
I had to cut back, since I still have beans and corn and some pluots from last week, and because I figured I'd be getting a ton of leftovers to take home after fooding with the dad. So I only got about three (3) brandywine tomatoes and one (1) of this other heirloom that was supposedly brandywine-esque. It was just as ugly and lumpy, so I figured it must be pretty tasty as well! And then, um, I got about ten (10) of the slightly-larger-than-cherry-sized tomatoes that are yellow and green striped that I can eat dozens of. I love them. I love the tomato stand that offers samples, because otherwise I never would have found them!
Of course, I got my normal giant bag of peas and made actual conversation with the pea guy! And this week, he had cranberry beans! I didn't get any, because of above thoughts re: leftovers, but next week I will definitely get them. Maybe I will make a white bean salad or something. Hrm. Do cranberry beans count as white beans? They are fresh, too! Beans! In a pod! With red stripes! They are so cute and candy-cane looking and I love them already!
Possibly this excitement over produce would be considered odd by some people, but they must be living off of nasty supermarket tomatoes (says I, the now-produce-snob).
And then I womanfully skipped over the blueberries and strawberries and raspberries, but since my dad told me to buy him some fruit, I went on to the peaches. I sampled quite a few, since I'm still trying to figure out the best peach vendors, and ended up deciding that the cling peaches are still too hard and watery, that the traditional yellow peaches are nicely peachy but still not sweet enough, and that the white peaches are either insipid or I wasn't able to get my grubby little fingers on a slice. But! Then I tried a freestone peach, and it was delicious! They are huge, and gorgeously reddish-yellow, and the best part is that the inside is veined with red as well. And oh, so sweet, and so peachy! The same place had delicious white nectarines as well, not at all insipid, so, uh, I ended up with about ten pieces of fruit total. This does not sound like much, except it is only me eating them, and I have dinner and lunch covered for the next two days!
Also, yes, this really does count as me holding back at the market. I avoided so much temptation.
After that, my dad and his friend for some reason decided to have brunch at the new Four Seasons hotel around here, and I gladly tagged along (read: leapt at the opportunity). It was very tasty. I had a chilled seafood sampler with crab claws (not very tender at all and sort of dry), shrimp (good and plump, but still not as good as freshly steamed shrimp with heads), and raw oysters (delicious and slurpy and briny). I also stole some of my dad's friend's ahi tartare and my dad's asparagus terrine (sort of like asparagus suspended in gel; quite weird, really). Then I had eggs benedict, but on a fat slice of lox, without the loads of hollandaise that completely obscures the flavor of everything else, with a side of beef tenderloin and potatoes. My dad had fish and chips, extremely delicately fried and wonderfully tender on the inside, with curly-fry-tasting chips that were just the right level of crunchiness. My dad's friend had steak, which I didn't try, because I had beef as well.
We had a lot of leftovers.
And then, we put our heads together to come up with a strategy to tackle the dessert buffet, because every single thing there looked absolutely divine. In the end, I had a few bites of millefiulle, a tiny tiramisu, passion fruit creme brulee (GAH SO GOOD), caramel cheesecake, double chocolate cake, honey-flavored cannelloni, three types of cheeses, three types of honey (one still in the honeycombe), and a little fruit tart. Everything was pretty good, though the tiramisu wasn't espresso-y enough. But oh.... passion fruit creme brulee! Cheese! Honey! Everything!
Then I went shopping and ended up getting two cute new coats (one is red crushed ... something that looks like fake fuzzy velvet) and a very girly short-sleeved fitted coat with a sort of deep, round collar, and a pair of pants. I can't decide if the pants are pajama pants, exercise pants, or just very trendy, because they are made of super casual material but flare out like a giant skirt. But it was on sale, so I figured for $9, it could work as any of the above, and I wouldn't feel bad. Everything was super on sale!
I have also discovered my deeply coveted item of the season: vampy red peep-toed stilettos like this (Nine West has a red suede-ish one that would go with my new jacket too!). They would be the most painful things ever to wear, but they are so cute! And I could actually wear them a lot, since most of my outfits are black and white, and a touch of red would be nifty and fun. Oh well! I shall wait till the new season comes in and see if any are left on the sales racks.
For dinner, I had carpaccio, some warm goat cheese salad, a bit of poached fish, and pesto pizza. And then pistachio and tiramisu gelato for dessert! Not all by myself, of course: I stole a ton of stuff off my dad's plate and his friend's.
So I am well-fed and happily imagining myself in black and white and red. For some reason, that is my new color scheme, though for a while I veered away from it to go more toward baby pink and grey (I am sure this is because of the subliminal brainwaves that the fashion industry has been injecting into my subconscious, but I will pretend it is because I am actually stylish). I still avoid the browns in general, for no real reason that I can fathom. Well, except for pretty brown fifties-style halter dresses with white polka dots. But then again, I will go for any fifties-style halter dress with polka dots. Fun!
After that, I desperately wished that I were in LA so I could go to Furaibo and have real izakaya food, as opposed to a somewhat pale imitation of it. I need to find out if there are any izakayas around here, because for some reason, it feels more "real" than sushi places do. I also need to find a good Japanese curry place as well. It's just funny, because when I did homestay in Japan, we ate more of that type of thing than sushi, largely because we were trying to save money.
Then I complained to my dad for a good four hours about work! Poor dad.
Today, I managed to drag myself out of bed and make it to the farmers' market! Yes, I do manage to do this most of the time, but every day, it is an accomplishment! I mean... this is how much the farmers' market means to me. I actually forgo sleeping in on Sundays.
I had to cut back, since I still have beans and corn and some pluots from last week, and because I figured I'd be getting a ton of leftovers to take home after fooding with the dad. So I only got about three (3) brandywine tomatoes and one (1) of this other heirloom that was supposedly brandywine-esque. It was just as ugly and lumpy, so I figured it must be pretty tasty as well! And then, um, I got about ten (10) of the slightly-larger-than-cherry-sized tomatoes that are yellow and green striped that I can eat dozens of. I love them. I love the tomato stand that offers samples, because otherwise I never would have found them!
Of course, I got my normal giant bag of peas and made actual conversation with the pea guy! And this week, he had cranberry beans! I didn't get any, because of above thoughts re: leftovers, but next week I will definitely get them. Maybe I will make a white bean salad or something. Hrm. Do cranberry beans count as white beans? They are fresh, too! Beans! In a pod! With red stripes! They are so cute and candy-cane looking and I love them already!
Possibly this excitement over produce would be considered odd by some people, but they must be living off of nasty supermarket tomatoes (says I, the now-produce-snob).
And then I womanfully skipped over the blueberries and strawberries and raspberries, but since my dad told me to buy him some fruit, I went on to the peaches. I sampled quite a few, since I'm still trying to figure out the best peach vendors, and ended up deciding that the cling peaches are still too hard and watery, that the traditional yellow peaches are nicely peachy but still not sweet enough, and that the white peaches are either insipid or I wasn't able to get my grubby little fingers on a slice. But! Then I tried a freestone peach, and it was delicious! They are huge, and gorgeously reddish-yellow, and the best part is that the inside is veined with red as well. And oh, so sweet, and so peachy! The same place had delicious white nectarines as well, not at all insipid, so, uh, I ended up with about ten pieces of fruit total. This does not sound like much, except it is only me eating them, and I have dinner and lunch covered for the next two days!
Also, yes, this really does count as me holding back at the market. I avoided so much temptation.
After that, my dad and his friend for some reason decided to have brunch at the new Four Seasons hotel around here, and I gladly tagged along (read: leapt at the opportunity). It was very tasty. I had a chilled seafood sampler with crab claws (not very tender at all and sort of dry), shrimp (good and plump, but still not as good as freshly steamed shrimp with heads), and raw oysters (delicious and slurpy and briny). I also stole some of my dad's friend's ahi tartare and my dad's asparagus terrine (sort of like asparagus suspended in gel; quite weird, really). Then I had eggs benedict, but on a fat slice of lox, without the loads of hollandaise that completely obscures the flavor of everything else, with a side of beef tenderloin and potatoes. My dad had fish and chips, extremely delicately fried and wonderfully tender on the inside, with curly-fry-tasting chips that were just the right level of crunchiness. My dad's friend had steak, which I didn't try, because I had beef as well.
We had a lot of leftovers.
And then, we put our heads together to come up with a strategy to tackle the dessert buffet, because every single thing there looked absolutely divine. In the end, I had a few bites of millefiulle, a tiny tiramisu, passion fruit creme brulee (GAH SO GOOD), caramel cheesecake, double chocolate cake, honey-flavored cannelloni, three types of cheeses, three types of honey (one still in the honeycombe), and a little fruit tart. Everything was pretty good, though the tiramisu wasn't espresso-y enough. But oh.... passion fruit creme brulee! Cheese! Honey! Everything!
Then I went shopping and ended up getting two cute new coats (one is red crushed ... something that looks like fake fuzzy velvet) and a very girly short-sleeved fitted coat with a sort of deep, round collar, and a pair of pants. I can't decide if the pants are pajama pants, exercise pants, or just very trendy, because they are made of super casual material but flare out like a giant skirt. But it was on sale, so I figured for $9, it could work as any of the above, and I wouldn't feel bad. Everything was super on sale!
I have also discovered my deeply coveted item of the season: vampy red peep-toed stilettos like this (Nine West has a red suede-ish one that would go with my new jacket too!). They would be the most painful things ever to wear, but they are so cute! And I could actually wear them a lot, since most of my outfits are black and white, and a touch of red would be nifty and fun. Oh well! I shall wait till the new season comes in and see if any are left on the sales racks.
For dinner, I had carpaccio, some warm goat cheese salad, a bit of poached fish, and pesto pizza. And then pistachio and tiramisu gelato for dessert! Not all by myself, of course: I stole a ton of stuff off my dad's plate and his friend's.
So I am well-fed and happily imagining myself in black and white and red. For some reason, that is my new color scheme, though for a while I veered away from it to go more toward baby pink and grey (I am sure this is because of the subliminal brainwaves that the fashion industry has been injecting into my subconscious, but I will pretend it is because I am actually stylish). I still avoid the browns in general, for no real reason that I can fathom. Well, except for pretty brown fifties-style halter dresses with white polka dots. But then again, I will go for any fifties-style halter dress with polka dots. Fun!
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(no subject)
Mon, Aug. 14th, 2006 05:29 am (UTC)I think cranberry beans would be tasty and very pretty in white-bean recipes.
(no subject)
Mon, Aug. 14th, 2006 06:25 am (UTC)I think I shall make a vainglorious attempt at blueberry pie, since my blueberries are a week old and probably getting a little too ripe for me to enjoy (I don't like them once they get mushy).
The cranberry beans are so pretty!!
(no subject)
Mon, Aug. 14th, 2006 07:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Aug. 14th, 2006 07:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Aug. 14th, 2006 02:39 pm (UTC)I suspect that the pants you've bought are really trendy, as they sound like something I've been seeing a lot of people wear around here.
(no subject)
Mon, Aug. 14th, 2006 07:32 pm (UTC)Huh. I own trendy pants, weird. Oh well, I'll just get them shortened a bit, then I can wear them wherever, and they're comfy enough to wear aroudn the house too.
(no subject)
Mon, Aug. 14th, 2006 06:09 pm (UTC)LA has a lot of izakayas other than Furaibo, though that's my favorite, and a handful of Japanese curry places. I'll take you to more of them next time.
(no subject)
Mon, Aug. 14th, 2006 07:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Tue, Aug. 15th, 2006 09:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Aug. 16th, 2006 08:40 pm (UTC)Also, am dying for the red stilettos with peep-toes, wah.