What are you eating?

[Buffalobiian]

No pics because i was short on time after wondering around the city, but I decided to pop in for some food since I stayed just slightly after work, but enough to miss my hourly bus back home.

Walked around a bit and ended up settling at this Japanese (food court style) restaurant for something to eat. I was going to get Ramen, but thought I'd try something different. Then thought of curry, but thought again that I'd go for something that I haven't tried before. Then I looked at the yakisoba and remembered how often I've seen it digitally, yet have never tried it in real life (though I've eaten my fair share of fried noodles). Since I was all in the "try something different" mood, I asked the waitress for a serving of yakiudon instead.

Apparently Yakiudon was sold out for the day though (how could that be?), so I defaulted to yakisoba and also asked them how long it would take to cook it (since I spent too long looking around the place, as well as other stores). She tells me 4 minutes and my flags went up. (sold out, and such quick cooking time? I wasn't familiar with EXACTLY how yakisoba was to be cooked, but I would have thought getting fresh ingredients together to cook would take longer.

I sat down, and in the stated time my serving of yakisoba arrived in front of me. First thing to note was that it definitely didn't smell like recently fried noodles. More like steamed. Or well-microwaved. By the time it hit my tongue, I can detect no caramelisation any more (whether it was there to begin with is unknown).

There was only one flavour in the dish. Onions. Perhaps an overpowering amount - due to the lack of anything else. I'd like to ask anyone who's had a serving of yakisoba to give their accounts for a comparison, since I totally wasn't expecting an onion flavour and nothing else (though I also never saw any seasoning added to yakisoba cooking sessions that I would have seen via television). Only other real flavour would be the ginger that I mixed in right at the end just to finish the whole thing off.

All in all, it was pretty underwhelming. Maybe next time I should visit a place with a visible teppan (iron slab) so I can see exactly what goes on.

[shinta|hikari]

Good yakisoba should be freshly stir fried. It does not taste of onions. It should taste of the sauce that was used to make it. The other ingredients are complementary flavours (shrimp, pork, onion, green onion) or for texture (carrots, other veggies). The sauce can be made up of different things, but usually soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce are present.

I personally like mine with Japanese mayonnaise and aonori. The combination of the mayo and the sauce is sublime, similar to how it works in okonomiyaki. I'm not a fan of beni-shoga in yakisoba though, but I will still eat it if there.

I love using bacon for yakisoba. It adds a certain depth of flavour that gets absorbed in the noodles.

Yakisoba isn't gourmet food by any means, but it is still good eats if done correctly.

[Buffalobiian]

So today was my Eat-To-Kill-Time (and I have a lot of time to kill) Day.

Started up in the morning with around 9 Siu Mai and 2 coffee-flavoured buns. I left 90 minutes early to go to the doctor's then, since it always falls behind schedule due to the wait. Ended up not being so bad though, so I had one hour to kill between that and work (excluding travel time). Next thought was to drop by this teppanyaki place I've seen a few times and try something out:



Ordered:

1 bowl Yakiudon
6 pcs Takoyaki
1 cup Lychee iced tea.



Now the yakiudon was more like what it should have been (unlike the yakisoba from last time). It was really hot, some of the udon was visibly charred (only a little) to show it was indeed fried, did not taste of onions and had sauce (dark, a little bit meaty, much like shinta's description above).

Not too much to talk about otherwise. Not exceptional, but not bad. I personally like my fried noodle dishes dryer, so all the sauce wasn't a point that really impressed me.



Next up: takoyaki.

I've had takoyaki a few (but less than 20) times in my life (two of which were in Japan), and not once had I looked at it and wondered if it may have been deep fried. I say this because the outside just had this golden crust that was suspicious... but who knows, maybe it was just the batter mix they used.

The temperature was also the reverse of what I'm accustomed to. The outside of the balls were warm/hot, while the inside is best described as warm. The octopus wasn't rock hard, but it was chewy and definitely solid.

The takoyaki I know are cooler on the outside, yet taste like molten octopus goodness inside (your tongue will get burnt badly if you're not careful, seriously).

What they did seem to get right was the sauce.

The lychee drink was refreshing and probably overpriced. It's a shame that I couldn't get the two lychee out in any neat manner though. It would have been nice to add some fruit to my diet.

After that, went to work, followed by some home-made fried egg noodles (using left-over noodles and meat from a roast chicken from the supermarket plus some bean sprouts) to have on my dinner break. Filling, but I added too much water to it before I microwaved, so the flavour was kinda diluted. Still, I was never a fan of this shape of noodles anyway. By all means enjoyable however, don't get me wrong.




Took a quick nap after that piece of work for about 15 minutes (built a bed out of boxs, even managed to make a leg rest and something to use as a pillow). Working till around 9:30pm, I had 40 minutes to kill before my bus home and wandered around the district to have a look at some eateries. This modernistic chinese dining place's prices seemed reasonable enough for me to give it a go (considering this was a meal I did not need). The sizes looked kind of small in the photographs, so I ordered two.



First up was the Wonton & Cha Shiu (pork) Noodle Soup. The sizes were actually pretty big. More so than what the pictures and prices would suggest. The wontons were also sufficiently big and proportional (probably 3/4 was a lump of meat with the rest being the pastry, rather than being a tiny pinch of meat and pastry the size of half a passport that some places serve), and plenty of BBQ pork on the Cha Shiu side too.

But really, the essence of any noodle soup is ... the noodles.... and the soup. That's where this falls short. The soup was bland and boring, while the noodles were what looked like Hokkein noodles rather than your regular egg noodles. What these pale, thick noodles had in size they lacked in flavour and structure. The bite was soft (almost soggy) with no hint of egg at all. Anybody who's ever had a good bowl of noodle soup (especially wonton noodle soup) would know that the noodles are to be thin, and the bite starts off bouncy then crisp when you finish it. All with a rich aroma of egg. I wouldn't recommend this one to anyone.



The second dish I ordered was curried chicken and rice. It was actually getting cold by the time I got to it (I don't believe I took that long, so they probably didn't serve it hot enough). It was winter though, so I'll give them the benefit of doubt. This one was a better eat, I reckon. The curry was of the creamy sort, with close to zero hotness to make it acceptable to the general platte (though to my highly-heat-tolerant tongue it naturally leaves something to be desired). But overall, yes, besides the noodle soup that I would only describe as "wrong" (wrong choice of noodles/cooking time), the quality-to-price ratio for this place just around the corner from work would keep me coming back for at least a few more times to see what their other dishes are like. Next will probably be a dryer stir-fried dish to see just how well these guys can stir fry.

I was informed that there was more fried noodles when I got home, but I passed on that one.

[Buffalobiian]

Weeaboo time again!



Asahi beer with Nissan Terriyaki Chicken and Garlic instant noodles.

The noodles weren't that great. Alright, but not my favourite flavour. Not that it's really an "authentic" flavour either. I've got to find time to make a trip to this place for a box of Tonkotsu and a box of Kyoto Shoryu flavoured ones sometime.

As for the beer, I was pretty disappointed. At my old store I've had many customers ask for this, which we didn't have at the point. They talked about it like it was the best beer in the world. When we started stocking it, from seeing how pleased our customers were, I thought I should try some as well.

It tastes nearly identical to Hahn Super Dry. Extremely bland and flavourless. Xel's informed me that Asahi's export versions are brewed from various locations though (mine was from Thailand), so I must put this on my must-try list when I go back to Japan again (the trip is not planned at all, but it's inevitable.

Had a Sapporo soon afterwards though, and that was much like how I remembered it tasting when I had the Japanese brew. It's mid-strength bitter with a slight weirdness to it, but doesn't leave an aftertaste much upon swallowing. I find this much better than the Asahi that I had. Kirin's supposed to be Asahi's major rival though.. I haven't seen one such bottle in Australia yet (though I'm sure it's somewhere).

And then, last night I had this.

[Buffalobiian]

Had an unannounced hotpot dinner at home with family today.

Hotpot's usually a kind of big-deal, celebratory kind of meal that we don't have every day. Despite the foods being relatively "good" and more expensive compared to your average meals, I've always found it to be kind of 'meh' or 'it's alright'. I'm never really 100% full neither, and that's not from the lack of food. If anything, it's probably because the entire meal takes so long due to the cooking and waiting that I just end up "getting over it" and finishing up despite not being completely fed. I admit was was full yesterday, but I soon got hungry in 2 hours or so.

Hotpot was never really about the food though, but more about the whole gathering and such - so it turned out to be a good meal in the end anyway.

Guess this is what they're getting at when people talk about a dining experience.

The night wasn't over until I had some 2-minute noodles 2 hrs afterwards though. :P

[Buffalobiian]

Had some Phad Thai for lunch yesterday because I forgot my lunch. It was alright, but a few things could be improved:

1) increase serving size. Had to have some sushi afterwards to fill up.
2) Lessen the peanuts, increase the spicyness.
3) Fry the dish to produce a dryer result. A dry, slightly caramelised finish is essential. Otherwise, it feels more like the noodles are mixed with some hot sauce, rather than being stir-fried together.

And today, just some canned fish with rice. Fatty/oily fish ftw!

[Sapphire]

So I've been living in poverty for the past week or so, eating only rice and a special tomato sauce I make. On top of that, to save money, I walked home from 86th St to 14th St. It took a full 2 hours and I was running on a rice cake and an apple. I went to a delicious Japanese hole-in-the-wall called Otafuku and had a Yakisoba/Okonomiyaki combo with 6 pieces of Takoyaki, both covered in fish trimmings. I knew it wouldn't sustain me for long, but at that point I was exhausted and lying in bed and dreaded the thought of even going outside to a Halal cart (which there are 4 literally outside my door).

I let the hunger go to an unbearable max and decided to buy some Insomnia cookies. Insomnia cookies is a place around NYU that delivers cookies to all the dorms until late night. They're so good, they melt in your mouth and in your hand and just mmmmmm.

I look at the menu. The prices are almost too good to be true. The deals are too enticing. I end up going with the 18 cookies for $17 deal called Major Rager. I call up, 'cuz smores aren't on the online menu, and the guy says to pick "peanut butter" cookies and put that I want to switch it out with Smores in the comment section.

I get startled by a call that they're at my door like 4 minutes later. The guy sees me and hands me the box of cookies. It's.... MUCH heavier than I expected. I am too hungry to even wait until I'm upstairs and I open the box on the way to the elevator and HOLY SHIT WHAT HAVE I DONE



Above is a picture of OMG all the cookies I got in an irrational haze of hungry hungryness, minus the two cookies I immediately shoved down my throat on the way to my room. I looked on top of the box and there's a quickly written note, "Smores not included in Major Rager. Lucky you, this time." So I got all the cookies PLUS SIX EXTRA peanut butter cookies which I can't even eat because I'm allergic to them. @____@ which is basically a crapload of cookies.

[Animeniax]

You live in poverty but you spent almost $1 per cookie for 18 cookies? A pack of 20 Keebler cookies costs $2.

[Sapphire]

Yeah, I was going to get like, 2 cookies, to indulge myself. Then it all went awry.

And Keebler cookies aren't as huge as these cookies so you have the volumes ALL wrong. These cookies are like the span of my hand.

Edit: A cookie of that size in NYC is usually $1.75 - $2. Me buying these cookies was tots irrational and horrible, though. I think I just learned the hard way that I should always have a healthy snack closely available. Well at least I only blew $20 instead of $70 like some people I know. D: D: D:

[rockmanj]

Well, I have been eating tofurky the past few days, but I do have a funny thanksgiving story. I volunteered to cook the thanksgiving meal for my (omnivore) family and my dad wanted me to cook a beef roast from 2006. That's right, it had been in my parents' freezer since 2006! Of course I refused to cook that, since if people died and ate it, I would likely be charged for murder. So I compromised and cooked a pork roast from early 2009 to the best of my ability. Of course the comments around the taste and texture were "it's a little dry..."

[Dark Dragon]

You guys must all have incredibly strong stomach. Pork should generally not be kept that long even while deep freeze.

[Assertn]

Friend of mine invited me over to his place for thanksgiving and oh man... his girlfriend's pecan pie is the best pie i've ever eaten. Ridiculous.

I've been trying to make more stuff at home, and try some new healthy options, so I got greek yogurt and a bunch of various super-sweet fruits to mix with it. There was a sale on blackberries and whole-freakin pomegranates, so I've been using those. By the way, pomegranates are kind of annoying to eat right out of the fruit.

[Kraco]

By the way, pomegranates are kind of annoying to eat right out of the fruit.

Which is why I've only bought them once in my life. The taste wasn't honestly worth the effort.

[Animeniax]

Friend of mine invited me over to his place for thanksgiving and oh man... his girlfriend's pecan pie is the best pie i've ever eaten. Ridiculous.

I've been trying to make more stuff at home, and try some new healthy options, so I got greek yogurt and a bunch of various super-sweet fruits to mix with it. There was a sale on blackberries and whole-freakin pomegranates, so I've been using those. By the way, pomegranates are kind of annoying to eat right out of the fruit.

Honestly was it the pie or the girlfriend that made it so delicious? Bow-chicka-wow-wow!

[gos27]

I've been trying to make more stuff at home, and try some new healthy options, so I got greek yogurt and a bunch of various super-sweet fruits to mix with it. There was a sale on blackberries and whole-freakin pomegranates, so I've been using those. By the way, pomegranates are kind of annoying to eat right out of the fruit.

They're a fecking pain to eat through them. Dragon fruit is very nice and so is star fruit (they're pretty hard to find though).

[Kagemane_no_Jutsu]

I feel like we live in an RPG.... the coolest sounding fruits are harder to find/prolly cost more.

just had some italian bread, popped it in the toaster oven, butter, yum.

[Animeniax]

Nah, just go to an Asian market or other ethnic market and you'll find all kinds of weirdly named food. Most of it doesn't taste very good, just different and therefore special to your average eater.

[Buffalobiian]

Starfruit's pretty alright. I'm not really fond of dragonfruit. It's rather bland, and the texture isn't that great. For something of comparable but superior characteristics I'd go for a nashi.

[Animeniax]

I just had Vietnamese banh mi with nem nuong spring rolls:

Saigon-Sandwiches-Grilled-Pork-16-banh-mi.jpg p1190032.jpg

Gonna go sleep off this food coma.

[Buffalobiian]

Started going on a tuna and mixed vegetable diet in an attempt to lower body fat %.

Current daily consumption is between 4000KJ to 6000KJ. It changes depending on what variety of tuna/veges I have on hand, as well as which one I decide to eat due to taste. (Tuna in oil tastes better than tuna in springwater - especially if mixed with the veges - but I try to balance it out by only eating one can of those vs two cans of the non-oily variety a day to make up for it.)

Udon, ramen and curry are sooo distant right now...