Category: Food

Flour or Corn?

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"Still Life by Otaku" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/30 sec, ISO800
 “Still Life by Otaku” Cedar Park, 2018

こんばんは。How’s it going?

So today the taco trailer visited our office building and of course I couldn’t resist. I have a view of the parking lot from my desk so I can see which food truck is gracing us with its presence, and also see how long the line is. And one of my co-workers is my taco-buddy so I enjoy Taco Tuesday at the office. 🌮

When I was growing up, and there was the choice between corn or flour tortillas, I always chose flour. I really couldn’t understand why anyone would prefer corn tortillas. I’m pretty sure it was because I liked to eat tortillas plain, and I once chose corn tortillas which were really dry. So, I kept with flour as my choice all these years.

But now, living in the land of central Texas, we eat soft tacos a lot. And I prefer the double-corn tortilla style for these smaller tacos. I think it just tastes amazing! I could eat carnitas, onion, cilantro on corn tortillas every day.

Today, however, I decided to try flour tortillas with a pork-belly filling and it was really delicious. The pork belly is really greasy and the flour tortillas soaked up all those flavorful juices nicely. It was somewhat eye-opening! I guess I have to rethink my tortilla game, or maybe just get used to calling an audible every time I order. 😆

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Today’s photo is what I call an Otaku Still-life, with Fuchico in the starring role. These little toys are nerdy things from Japan but they are really fun to take photos of. And then I had to also put some pencils and washi tape in the background to fill the frame. I admit it’s an “11:59 pm photo”, but I like it nonetheless.

I used my Ultrapod to hold the camera, then I positioned the elements while referencing the LCD screen. I then used the 2-second timer feature to reduce camera shake. In Lightroom, I added some grain to the final image, which I think adds a lot of character. I prefer a little roughness over a super clean look.

I hope you had a nice day!

おやすみ！

Saturday

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"Dinner" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO2500
 “Dinner” Cedar Park, 2018

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Today was a tiring day… I didn’t have a chance to sleep in because Bay had an SAT test at 8 am, so I needed to make him breakfast and drive him over to the high school, 25 minutes away. After that I went to the local library to vote in the city elections, then I went back home to pick up Koa and take him to the high school for his percussion contest.

I had a couple hours before picking up the kids so I went to Strait Music to see if they had a set of special ukulele strings. The set of strings I wanted is called “Low G” because the G is an octave lower than standard ukulele tuning. That particular string is a heavier gauge. Anyways, Strait Music didn’t have it in stock, so I called Guitar Center to see if they did. The salesman there confirmed that they had it in stock, and I specifically asked if it was “Low G” and he said yes. So I made the drive over, which was not an insignificant one, but when I arrived, they only had the regular sets of ukulele strings. The guy said, “Sorry about that. I don’t really know about ukuleles.” I was pretty pissed. 😤

Ugh. Anyways, I headed back home, then picked up Koa from the contest, and then made the trek over to the other high school to pick up Bay.

When we got home, Mariko had returned from work and we had some time to relax a bit before some friends came over for dinner. It was so delicious! We had a Korean-style dish with chili paste, mochi, veggies, chicken, and cheese. Accompanying that was an assortment of Korean veggies and then chawanmushi. And as a bonus, our friends brought over some uni! I was so full, but so tired too from a long day.

I hope you had a good Saturday as well!

おやすみ！

Scraps?

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"Bread Fails" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/9 sec, ISO800
 “Bread Fails” Cedar Park, 2018

こんばんは。How’s it going?

The past few days, Mariko has been baking a ton and sharing/selling bread to friends. And sometimes (not often) she has a bread fail… which is great for me because while the bread might not look perfect, it tastes great. 😀

The photo above shows some of the bread fails, but they still look great, don’t they?

I hope you had a nice Thursday!

またね～

#1 Meal

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"Favorite Meal" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/20 sec, ISO3200
 “Favorite Meal” Cedar Park, 2018

こなばんは。 How’s it going?

Tonight Mariko went out to a movie with a friend, but before she left, she prepared my favorite meal for us: oyakodon (親子丼). I’ve mentioned it before, but the word “oyakodon” means “parent and child donburi”, and it refers to it being chicken and egg. Kind of macabre, but oh so yummy!

Anyways, Mariko prepared the chicken, onion, and broth and left the covered pan on the stove for us to finish cooking. I basically just had to add the lightly beaten eggs and cook until the desired doneness. Sometime we’ll top it with nori (seaweed) and/or scallion, but tonight, we just had it plain with a bit of hot pepper. To me, it’s a perfect meal!

When I lived in Japan I used to go to a bento place called Hokka Hokka Tei. It was fast, convenient, and inexpensive. Although I wasn’t a huge fan of oyakodon back then, my favorite dish was a similar one called “katsu-ju”, which was breaded pork cutlet with egg on rice. Mmmmm! If I remember correctly, it was one of the more expensive items on the menu, at around 500 yen. But if I was short on cash that day, the noriben was also yummy, and only something like 220 yen. I miss those days!

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In other news, I caught up with Segodon (episode 10 currently) and am still enjoying it. The character Princess Atsu (played by Kitagawa Keiko) is the subject of another Taiga drama from several years ago, Atsuhime (hime=princess). I’m going to start watching that one too, but at 50 episodes, it’s going to be a long haul. 😀

I hope you had a nice Monday!

またね～

Eating Out

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"Vietdog" Austin, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO320
 “Vietdog” Austin, 2018

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Yesterday’s post featured a couple photos of homemade food, and today’s post has some restaurant food photos.

The first is from Mission Dogs, which is a food truck that comes by our office every week or so. They sell bacon-wrapped hot dogs, with several topping variations. Today I tried the “Vietdog”, which had cucumber, carrots, cilantro, garlic-chili sauce, and sriracha mayo. It was so good! My co-worker and I call the hot dogs “Disney dogs” because you pay more than you think you should for just a hot dog. But actually, the Mission Dogs are totally worth the price because they are so delicious and special, so the “Disney dogs” comment is mostly out of jest. 😄🌭🌶️❤️

"Fruity" Austin, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO1250
 “Fruity” Austin, 2018

The second photo is of a fancy drink from Olive Garden. We went out for dinner, which is not uncommon, but we rarely go to Olive Garden – this was perhaps only the third time we’ve ever eaten there. The food is certainly tasty, but it’s not the healthiest choice. Honestly, Mariko’s carbonara is hard to beat. But I suppose going out every once in a while is good, and a nice break from preparing a meal at home.

I hope you had a nice Thursday!

またね～