Category: Food

こんばんは！Hi, how’s it going?

Tonight’s photo is of the bowl of mapo tofu that I had for dinner. Mariko made this yummy and spicy dish from scratch, although you can buy the mapo (or mabo) sauce already prepared. It’s one of my favorite dishes.

Here in the States, many would call this type of food a “rice bowl”, meaning, a bowl filled with rice with some kind of topping. In Japan, there’s a similar type of food called “donburi” and it is just about my favorite. In particular, I love oyako-don, which is chicken and egg over rice, but I also love gyu-don (sliced beef over rice), katsu-don (pork cutlet over rice), and una-don (Unagi/eel over rice).

You could say this is a Japanese comfort food, because it is very commonly made at home. In fact, for my birthday dinner each year, I request oyakodon from Mariko, and she thinks it is a strange request because it isn’t very special. But it’s my favorite! Yummmm.

If you live in a city that has Yoshinoya, I urge you to go try one of the “beef bowls” (gyu-don). It’s so good!

I hope you ate well tonight, and we’ll see you tomorrow!

おやすみなさい！

– B 

こんばんは！How’s it going?

Today’s photo is of a delicious Japanese dinner that Mariko prepared. I’ve posted in the past about how fortunate the kids and I are that Mariko is an awesome cook, who can make so many different kinds of foods.

I was thinking how I am incapable of thinking of a wide variety of food to prepare. My brain just stops at sandwiches, burgers, enchiladas, or spaghetti. I have a mental block and have a difficult time of thinking of other possible dishes. It’s really weird! But Mariko can decide on something from a huge repertoire seemingly last-minute, and it always comes out amazing! And it’s not just one dish, but it’s a main dish, plus soup, salad, a couple fresh veggie dishes, rice, pickled vegetables, etc. I don’t know how she does it. My prepared meal, on the other hand, consists of a main dish, and a side dish… 😜

Anyways, I’m thankful for all the yummy foods and gladly help out (which most times means cleaning up, then just getting out of the way). My main job is doing the dishes which is a small price to pay for eating like a king every night. 🍴

I hope you had a nice weekend!

おやすみなさい！

– B 

こんばんは！How’s it going? Surviving the summer-like heat?

Tonight’s photo is of some fresh pears in our kitchen. I think they looked beautiful in the evening light. The shapes are so perfect in their “pearness”, aren’t they? 😊 I think nature is amazing. Even though most fruits and vegetable varieties have been guided by farmers, scientists, and botanists, it’s still incredible that our planet can give birth to such delicious things.

I often wonder how much life exists on other planets in the universe, and what kinds of fruits and veggies exist there. I wonder how many more types of flavors are out there that we’ll never know about. Or maybe our human physiology wouldn’t allow us to perceive these new flavors? Have we tasted all that we are able to taste? These are the questions that keep me awake at night… 😜

Hope you had a nice Tuesday!

おやすみなさい！

– B 

こんばんは！Hi, how’s it going?

Today I met my friend for lunch at a “gourmet” burger place called Hopdoddy. I really like the food and restaurant, plus the location we went to is close to the best camera store in Austin (and largest in Texas), Precision Camera and Video. We’re both camera otaku, so it’s fun to check out all the cool camera gear and dream about owning the high-dollar cameras. 📷

It was nice to go out for lunch, which is something that I don’t do often these days. I tend to just work through lunch and put in my hours. It has to do with the fact that I usually just have one meal a day (dinner). While that may seem unconventional, unhealthy, and perhaps even crazy, it wasn’t an uncommon way for people to live in the past.

I did a little bit of research about eating habits, and it seems that we as a society only settled on the “three meals a day” standard within the couple hundred years or so, primarily for economic and employment reasons. And of course the modern food industry pushes us to eat more and more. I’m sure the pharmaceutical companies don’t object to that either.

At any rate, when I do go out for lunch, I don’t mind splurging since I’ve been saving money by not buying lunch each day. The burger place we went to is a bit pricey but the food is so tasty! Today’s burger was a special (not on the regular menu) called the “Lil Brat”. 🍔 Since it’s close to Oktoberfest the burger has a sliced bratwurst sausage with grain mustard on top of the beef patty. It was awesome! And I also got a large order of the Kennebec fries 🍟, which I love.

I’m not entirely sure, but I think that living a more restrictive life helps me appreciate things a bit more… in this case, I really savor the food that I eat, since I don’t eat as often. I need to think about this concept some more! 😊

Well, I hope you had a great day and ate well! 🍴

おやすみなさい！

– B