daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
Today we had two families over for an in-person pizza lesson. Usually, Mariko teaches via Zoom but today it was a special visit with friends. Lots of fun! And of course, the pizza was yummy. 😀🍕
Maguro (tuna) is not my favorite sushi, but Toro (fatty tuna) is definitely up there!
Tonight’s dinner was yakiniku with Japanese wagyu beef, sliced pork belly, sausage, mushrooms, cheese, and homegrown nasubi and jalapeño peppers. The beef was amazing, and the peppers were off-the-chart spicy! We also had some store-bought peppers which were very mild, thankfully.
I love spicy food, but these peppers were almost too much. I’d say these were almost as hot as habaneros! 🔥🌶 I loved them though. 😂
I made a beef brisket for our holiday meal using a slow-baking method as I have done in the past. However, this time it took a couple of hours longer than usual for some reason. The delay was okay, however, as the family was in full relax-mode, and we snack on the smoked sausage and drank margaritas (just Mariko and I!) while we waited. I also made jalapeño poppers, Bay made mashed potatoes, Mariko made a salad, and Koa set the table.
It was a yummy meal, and easy to make.
FYI, the traditional way of preparing jalapeño poppers is to wrap the cheese-filled peppers with bacon strips, and then pop them into the oven. But what we do is to fry up the bacon, cut into bits, and then just add them with the cheese stuffing. This method is so much easier, not nearly as messy, and it’s simpler to get the jalapeños to the right done-ness. It’s also way easier to eat. 😀🌶
I hope you had a nice day!
American wagyu beef, pickled eggs, broccolini, and tomatoes… so good. It’s hard to beat curry-night! 🍛
Today we visited Brouwerij West in San Pedro to enjoy some cold beer under the warm sun with my brother and sister-in-law and their good friend. The food trucks at the brewery were really good too! We enjoyed a huge portion of Rendang from the Malaysian food truck and traditional BBQ brisket and ribs from the bbq trailer. Mmmmmm… I’m kicking myself because I didn’t take any photos.
After that, we went back to Torrance to relax a bit before picking up my auntie and bringing her to the house for a dinner of Coco Ichibanya Japanese curry, followed by several games of mahjong. I also failed to take any photos the rest of any of this! 😮
But it was a fun day, and wonderful to see my auntie who is in her late 80s. She’s still pretty sharp at mahjong, and loves good food. ❤
My oldest brother had the day off today so we spent it with him and my mom with the first stop being the bowling alley. It was great to have some laughs there, while staying socially distant from the other bowlers. I think they kept a couple lanes between the parties which was nice, and we noticed them wiping down the bowling balls and chairs when people left. Although it feels sometimes like we’re back to normal, the truth is that COVID-19 is still ever-present, with new variants making the rounds. 😐
We worked up a big appetite so we went to Pancho’s in Manhattan Beach for some excellent Mexican food. My chile verde burrito was huge and luckily I have two teenager who helped me finish it. 🌯
After our late lunch, we went back to my parents’ house to relax a bit before eating dinner (so much food!) and then settled in for a nice long mahjong session. Lots of fun!
