This Weekend

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My whole dorm room is on a diet.

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There was some kind of party for international students on friday, and my Taiwanese roomie Antonia asked me to help her bake a cake like the blackberry one I made for Romina. She told me she wanted to add banana to it, so we mashed up some banana and put it into the cake batter. I used the same recipe as Romina's cake though. Inbetween the layers is a caramelized walnut mixed with a buttercream glaze and mushed up bananas. On top are those same candied walnuts, all cooled and hardened and two banana slices. Everyone was drooling in my dorm. We ate a big bowl of salad while staring at it... it almost felt like a weird ritualistic cult-ish meal. We didn't get to try it, but apparently it was a big hit.

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Meanwhile I've been making soups and salads non-stop. This is a chicken broth based soup. It has shrimp, broccoli, carrots, chicken, onion, garlic, mushrooms, blackbeans and potato in it. It's my mission to make our diet delicious.

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I made this for Jesse last night. It's a braised steak with a sherry-mushroom sauce. The asparagus has a peanut-curry sauce on top. Not exactly low-fat, but at least high-protein... for him! I'm trying to balance good fats with bad fats, so that's where the nuts come in. We also got two avocados that'll turn into guacamole sometime soon.

Japanese Obsession 2

From bento

Bento!

I made that with the help of my roommate back in Japan. Unfortunately now that I'm back in the states, I don't get too many chances to make a lot of bento now. One thing I'm looking forward to next time I'm in Japan for an extended stay is to get back into bento making.

From bento

Pork, Cherry tomatoes, cucumber sausage and apple filled bunnies.

From bento

From hanami

For last year's hanami.

From hanami

We made all that!

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And from this year's, mentioned in the first post. Not really in bento-form. I gave my big pink bento box to my boss in Japan, Maiko. It's hiding in the next photo.

From hanami

I got really obsessed with bento boxes while I was in Japan, and I'm sure if my career leads me there again I'll be collecting them all over again. There's just something really fun about making cute and delicious food.

Taqueria La Guadalupana

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It's been several hours since I've eaten there, and I still feel like I am digesting a small buffalo... even a nap couldn't help this. That said, it was delicious. My dad recommended this place a while ago, as did others. Last time I went with my friend Rachel though, our experience was pretty bad. We were stared at the whole time we were eating.

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I got the chimichanga.

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Jesse got the flauta, but we split both. I am stufffeeeeddd. The flauta was better than the chimichanga, admittedly. The way they cooked the rice and the filling in the chimichanga reminded me of my grandma's cooking for some reason.

Today's Lunch is Yesterday's Dinner

Last night we made Japanese curry and Risotto. My boyfriend Jesse has become my cooking partner in crime. He never cooked at all before he met me. Now he's my resident slicer and dicer. With a little help, he pretty much made the Japanese curry on his own. Olivia, one of my Taiwanese roommates, made the Risotto. She never made it before, so I tried to help her out... except I've never done it before either. She start of with mushrooms, rice, and a few other ingredients. Antonia, my other roommate, kept saying, "put in cheese". We both protested until I wiki'd what risotto really is. I scrounged around the fridge, pulled out some parmesan, butter, milk, and a little worcestershire sauce. I threw in a little Italian seasoning, too... The result was pretty fantastic. My friend Terra came over to chow down and study as well. We still had a lot leftover. Luckily both these things taste even better the next day.

Jesse put on some fresh rice and went off to play GTA. Now I'm just waiting for these delectables to finish.

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And the result:

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Mmm...

Tonight gnocchi and sausage for dinner?

Parfait Obsession

I had a few obsessions while I was in Japan. Ramen, Bento, and parfait. Cat's cafe was a particularly awesome parfait shop in the Aeon/Jusco mall 15 minutes from my dorm.

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Shiho and a tiramisu parfait.

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Yuuki and some more Cat's Cafe parfait.

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A parfait from the now extinct Skylark's (now just Gusto).

What's not to like about them? Sometimes me and some other exchange students would fantasize about opening up a parfait shop in America like one in Japan... when we magically have money... when we're real people.

Sometimes though they had really bitter coffee jelly in them. I dunno about that. I really did like the "Wafuu" or traditional Japanese style of parfait with green tea icecream, mochi, and azuki beans. Mmmm... I'm making myself hungry for things I can't have.

Work

I work at a French Pastry Shop called Le Gourmet here in town. I have to admit, I took the job because I used to go there all the time and became addicted. French pastry is pretty hard to come by.

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This is pretty normal for me. All those yellow slips of paper? Finished Cake orders during Christmas. Usually they come out something like this:

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That's a Bouche de Noel or yule log. I wind up decorating a massive amount at work. Though really, I'm usually wishing I were just doing this:

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A Brioche. Omnomnom.

All these photos were taken by Sarah Jenkins, my friend and coworker. :D

A little history

So, I'm from someplace where we eat this:

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But I moved to Memphis when I was 4. All of my family is essentially Cajun or Creole... You could say that food is a big deal. Everyone in my family cooks. When I was in middle school, my family watched a lot of international tv and movies, mostly due to my sister's influence. The biggest influence to me food-wise was probably the food gangster from Tampopo.

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A paragon of beauty and excellence.


I already had an interest in Asia. My sister and I watched a lot of kungfu movies and anime growing up. The local Japanese restaurant, Edo, served up some pretty spectacular sushi. Especially their crunchy shrimp and louisiana rolls:

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And, our favorite chinese restaurant, Asian Palace, served what they called "Roast Pork with Wonton Noodle Soup". I learned later that this is basically "Wonton mien". Forgive the poor quality. This picture was taken several years ago with a much crappier digital camera.

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Memphis has a lot of excellent food. I like to eat well. Eating delicious food all my life has been a goal since a young age. Eating yummy food led to cooking yummy food. My dad always said, "there are those who eat to live, but we're not those people."

Omnoms

I am going to post pictures of all the things I eat and make, especially the delicious ones. I think this will reveal who I am because I'm all about food. :D

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This is the first thing I took a picture of in Japan. It's a cold soba with an egg and little nori seaweed strips. I actually remember it being pretty gross because the egg had a foamy-texture, but my "guardian" Shiho picked me up from the airport and took me out to eat. She wound up doing lots of wonderful things for me, and this was the beginning of my attempts to be fearless when dining.

I'm going to be double posting something old and something new a lot, I think.

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This is my roommate, Romina. She's from Germany. Her birthday just passed, and I baked her a cake and we went on a picnic.

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It's a simple yellow cake with a buttercream glaze and a blackberry filling.

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These are her pictures, but it was my cooking. We have a botanical garden here, so a group of us went and made traditional bento food for hanami, or flower viewing festival. We made chirashizushi and makizushi. It was a pretty great day. Everyone really enjoyed it.

And that's it! For now. :)