On my normal running route around the neighborhood, there is a hill at about the 4 mile mark. At the top of this hill is a house. And the people who live in this house often barbeque. And the kind of meat they barbeque is Korean Kalbi. It smells sooooooo goooooood!!! By the time I run past, my stomach is growling like crazy! I need to befriend this family.
Category: Food
Valentine’s Dinner
Fondue Dinner
One of our family traditions is that we have a lovely fondue dinner to celebrate Valentine’s Day. This year, the dinner was on the 15th because we attended a Chinese New Year’s celebration on the 14th. But, the fondue was excellent as always (even tastier this year, in my opinion) and the four of us really enjoyed ourselves. I’m not sure how or when the fondue tradition started, but it is something we look forward to every year. It’s so yummy!
This year, the kids had LED ice cubes in their drinks, while Mariko and I enjoyed a bottle of Prosecco. The cheese fondue was accompanied by French bread, bratwurst, cauliflower, potato, and ravioli. The chocolate fondue (not pictured) was accompanied by banana, strawberries, and marshmallows. Just FYI, Mariko and I had a cheese fondue that had white wine added, and our chocolate fondue had some chocolate liqueur added. Mmmm. So good!
Setsubun
Ehoumaki for Setsubun
Yesterday was Setsubun (節分)! As always, Mariko made delicious ehoumaki (恵方巻き) sushi rolls, which I always look forward to. For those of you not familiar with this tradition, you are supposed to face the lucky direction, which happens to be West-Southwest for this year, and eat your sushi-roll without speaking. It’s fun and delicious!
Fusion Food
A nice thing has been happening at my office: Food Trucks! Once in a while we’ll have a food truck parked outside the building some of them have really interesting lunch selections. A few of the trucks have served what I’d call fusion food, which is a combination of two (or more) types of food. For instance, I had some bulgogi quesadillas (combining Korean and Mexican cuisines). It sounded like a great combination and I was excited to try. I expected it to be delicious!
At first, it did taste yummy, but about halfway through I kind of just wanted bulgogi with rice, or a regular quesadilla. This dish reminded me of some kind of concoction you’d make from leftovers. For instance, say I have some leftover bulgogi from a restaurant, but I don’t have any rice to go with it. However, I do find some frozen tortillas so I substitute that for the rice. In the case of the bulgogi quesadillas, I didn’t feel the combo was better than the original foods, which have been “perfected” over many years already. I did enjoy the quesadillas (the bulgogi was yummy!), but felt like it missed the mark a bit.
On the flipside, I tried the “Kimchi Fries Burrito” which was AMAZING! I think the ratio of flavor leaned towards the Korean side of things, with the fries reminding me of the potato you sometimes get as a side dish at Korean BBQ. The tortilla and cheese were probably only about 10% of the taste. I’m guessing I enjoyed the Kimchi Fries Burrito more than the quesadilla because of the fact that it was more true to one side of the combination rather than a 50-50 split.
So I guess what I realized is that with fusion food, as with all other things, you really need to try before you form an opinion. Also, the more I think about it, I tend to like the extremes of things and if you are going to do something, go all in.
Regarding the food in this post, the quesadilla and burrito were from Chilantro, and the nachos (which were super!) in the photo are from Guac n Roll.
Fuchiko and Ohayo! @satencoffee
Our friends opened up a new café! Please visit Sa-Tén sometime!
