This one is different than I’ve experienced in that it is a full course meal, instead of only sushi & sashimi. Except for the edamame, everything was individual portions.

I’m very sad that my camera SD card flaked out so you can’t see the beautiful agadashi tofu.

Whew! It’s a lot of food. At under $40, I think quite reasonable, too.

Miso Soup
1st dish

Plenty of tasty seaweed and just the right saltiness.

Edamame
2nd dish

“Not shown” Agedashi Tofu
3rd dish

So beautiful. Robust tofu, dipped in tempura batter and deep fried, then served in a light soup, with a bed of condiments on top.

Tuna Tataki
4th dish

Seared tuna with peppery sprouts and shredded daikon.

Ocean Salad
5th dish

Pickled wakame seaweed salad (yum!) with strips of fresh squid.

Shrimp gyoza
6th dish

I had hoped the mayo would be spicy, but it’s normal Kewpie mayo. I even missed hitting the shichimi. The dipping sauce was tasty. Can you see the shrimp tails peeking out of the dumplings?

Sashimi
7th dish

With the exception of the fish in the little blue dish, it is some of the finest sashimi I’ve had in a while. The lemon slices were brilliant with the salmon and mackerel.

Grilled Salmon Fin
8th dish

I usually eat the skin, too, but it was a bit too charred to eat.

Tempura
9th dish

I’m not a fan, but this was pretty good. Still a bit too oily, and not as light a batter as I like. I had to defend my kabocha pumpkin from Maureen, even though she had the same thing.

Udon
10th dish

Vegetable udon, but not Kitsune udon because there was no tofu cake. The mushrooms were lovely. The noodles were deliciously silky.

By this time we were near bursting. After the soup cooled a bit, it was more refreshing.

Green Tea ice cream
11th dish.

Whew! ごちそうさまでした!

When I went to add in a full container of compost this weekend, there was a new tenant inside the bin – maggots!

They turn my stomach but I tried to think about it rationally. They are also eating the garbage. I figured they would be gone within a day or two but upon feeding the worms today, they are still there and in greater numbers.

So I needed to do some research. Why were they there? Would they hurt the worms? Are they good for my worm compost then? These and other questions I researched online.

They turn out to be the larvae of the Black Soldier fly. This type of fly has larvae that feed specifically on compost. The adults are not pests. They don’t bite, sting, or even eat. Their only job is to look pretty and breed. They die in 2 days.

They and the larvae will not hurt my worms. In fact, they will help feed them with their waste. The only concern is that they have a tendency to out-eat the worms. So there should be plenty of food.

Black soldier fly larvae prefer moist composting areas. This indicates my compost bin is too wet. I had thought the catch tray would take care of excess moisture but I guess the compost is too close together to let it all drain. The solution is to fluff up and dry the compost by adding more bedding.

I use shredded paper for bedding. We shred anything with our name or address on it to help prevent identity theft. I figure if a worm eats it, that’s even better prevention. So I mixed in some more shredded paper, spread it out, and fluffed it up. Hopefully, that will help discourage the black soldier fly larva from returning.

I’m okay with some soldier fly larvae composting. In fact, some people have bins with only soldier fly larvae, but I have a worm bin and I don’t want to starve them. If I can keep the maggot level down so they don’t starve the worms, that would be okay.

But they still turn my stomach a bit.

While picking out seeds at Whole Foods, I saw this package of Micro Greens.

They are quite trendy right now, and it seemed a fun and not bitter way to add variety to salads. I dislike arugula/rocket, endive, and the other bitter lettuces. Plus they’re super easy, just scatter the seeds, let grow for 25 days, and done! This one is 20% red cabbage, 20% pak choy cabbage, 20% beets, 20% swiss chard, and 20% kohlrabi.

I used one of the window-style planter boxes upstairs for the first batch. Even though I put 1″ fencing over the top, the squirrels happily devoured anything that popped above it. The soil is fairly close to the top of the planter. So I lost perhaps half the greens that way.

I’ve fixed it for the other planters, which are downstairs. They are much deeper, so I can have the soil level about 3″ below the lip to keep the greens for ourselves. I’m spacing my plantings, so I have one batch almost half done, one I will plant tomorrow or Friday, and the one I harvested today.

Not much, but enough to top two salads, garnish two plates, or eat as a snack. I mixed in some cress seed to the next batch for a little more zing.

Since I’m still trying them out, I’m going to wait until I’ve eaten a few batches before deciding to get another packet of seeds. I should get two or three more plantings out of this one.

This year I received something better.

My sisters and I sent “care” packages to our brother while he was stationed in Iraq. In thanks, he made us these. I’m all poignant.

It’s TEH Awesome!!

Here is the post.

Evenings vary. Thursday, we ended up at Masala, rated the best Indian restaurant by San Diego magazine. It’s tasty, but pricey. Primarily, it’s convenient. Located in the Gaslamp district, adjacent to the convention center, it’s close by. Fortunately for us, but regretfully for them, most Con attendees are more interested in American or Continental fare. When we eat with Peter, those are the restaurants we usually end up at. Those restaurants pack quickly, but we were able to sail into Masala with a party of 5 and no waiting. ^_^ Eventually, it filled up as the adventurous overflow “settled” for Indian food. Heh, they are “settling” for better food than most of those other places serve.

Indian bread is fabulous. Masala offers a bread basket, which comes with plain nan, garlic nan, onion kulcha, and spinach kulcha. We ordered two. Masala also paid attention to the amount of spice, or lack thereof, that we preferred for our dishes. Joe had a lovely chicken vindaloo, which normally I find too spicy to eat. Shiaw-Ling and David shared chicken tikka masala. Carl had a shrimp dish, which I think was Bangalore shrimp. I had a lamb dish from the Chef’s recommendations, which I can’t find on their online menu.

Yummy, yummy, yummy.

We happy eaters, waiting for the tasty food to come. Joe, Carl, David, Shiaw-Ling.

Such tasty treats. Non-veg appetizer, featuring deep-fried vegetables, tandoori chicken and kebabs. The bread basket. My very tasty lamb dish.

So much good food! See how we’re digging in?

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Hancock. This summer there are quite a few films I’d like to see, which isn’t always the case. The ads for Hancock put a very human, dysfunctional face on a super-being, so it seemed really interesting. The first half went, essentially, as expected. I’ve grown more interested in the journey of films because the ends have gotten predictable.

Suddenly, a curveball! I was not expecting that! That sort of thing out of left field makes the movie more fun. After the curveball happened, it followed a different, but still predictable path, with a satisfactorally expected ending.

Little things. Will Smith is an amazing actor. But he didn’t use as much nuanced emotional range in this film as I expected. He didn’t need to be super-expressive, but more than slightly moist eyes on occasion would be nice. Mary Embrey, while actually played by Charlize Theron, has a body type and hairstyle similar Niki Sanders in Heroes. Mary also had very similar mannerisms to Niki. So I kept expecting to see Ali Larter, but ending up with Charlize Theron. It was a bit jarring.

I did enjoy this movie, although I liked Iron Man better.

Enjoy!

Keith participated in the Santa Clara Leadership course. At the end, there was a graduation and reception. The food was prepared by students from Wilcox High School, which has a culinary program. Yummy.

They offered substantial appetizers, including Southwest wraps, tofu “crackers” w/ mushroom tapenade, meat on a stick, and this beautiful suite of melon balls served on a cracker with a bed of cream cheese and a honey-mint glaze.

Dessert was equally refined and beautiful. Individual black forest chocolate cakes were served parfait style in clear cups to show the layers better. Small donuts (beignets, maybe?) had an assortment of fillings, or dusted w/ powdered sugar.

In Japan, Valentine’s Day focuses on the men. Women make or buy chocolate to give to the men they know. The usually fall into one of two categories. Giri-choco, or obligation chocolate is given to all a woman’s male friends and relatives. It’s a normal quality chocolate, usually pre-bought. Honmei-choco, or “true” chocolate is fancy chocolate, often handmade, given only to the man or men toward whom the woman has the greatest affection.

In return, clever marketers turned March 14 into White Day. This is the day the men reciprocate gifts to the women. “White” is to indicate that women are too “delicate” for regular chocolate, and so should be given white chocolate instead. I dislike white chocolate, finding it neither white, NOR chocolate, so I dislike that approach. However, I digress. On White Day, the men usually reciprocate a gift in excess of what they received.

In the U.S. Valentine’s Day focuses on the women. I’m not sure when that happened. I was taught that couples should equally gift one another on this day. Advertising and the zeitgeist indicate otherwise. Roses, chocolates, jewelry, and ornate valentines are the things to get. These are obviously aimed at women, since most men don’t care for such foofy things. What happened to equal exchange?

Well, in classic American crassness, it’s been fixed. March 14 is Steak and Blowjob Day. *ugh* According to the website, it was developed by a radio host several years ago, and sparked popular culture. As “payment” for the lovely gifts on Valentine’s Day, the men should get steak and fellatio from their women.

That’s the best name they could come up with? Seriously?

*WARNING!* The squeamish will want to skip the following paragraph. *WARNING*
Why not adopt the Japanese moniker of White Day, and have that stand for the creamy “foam” at the end of the act?
*WARNING* Paragraph ends. *WARNING*

Keith and I aren’t terribly romantic, so I’m the only one who managed to come up with a gift this year. Does that mean I get the blowjob? The whole thing just seems silly.

That’s why I’m going to jump on the Pi Day bandwagon. I probably don’t remember as many digits as most of my geek friends, but I do remember Pi = 3.14159. March 14 is 3/14, or 3.14, hence, Pi Day. To make it more fun, people have punned it to be Pi(e) Day. So you celebrate Pi by eating pie. I have no problem with that. How can you dislike pie? If eating pie gets you back in touch with your math, even better.

I wanted blueberry pie.

Don’t get me wrong. I love pumpkin pie, dutch apple pie, strawberry rhubarb pie, key lime pie, and others, but I love blueberry pie, and I haven’t had any in years. Also, I’m currently ill, and you tend to want the unreasonable when you are ill.

How is blueberry pie unreasonable, you ask? It’s really hard to find here in Silicon Valley. Amazingly so. When the fever had me up in the middle of the night, I went to the Baker’s Square website to find the closest one. Shiaw-Ling has bought pies there before and they are quite good.

But they don’t sell blueberry outside of the Midwest! Freaky! So I started hunting around. Most bakeries don’t even sell pies anymore, unless they are cream pies, or made to order. Marie Callender’s sells a blueberry apple, but that’s cheating. I don’t want blueberry-apple, blueberry cheesecake, blueberry-berry medley, just normal blueberry pie!

So I Google mapped “blueberry pie” in my area. Astonishingly few hits. None really local. I had coincidentally been to Heidi Pie Restaurant in San Mateo. It was a great diner with great pies. Too far to drive while I’m sick, though. (Any distance is too long, really. It’s not safe for me to drive sick.) Keith wasn’t thrilled with the idea of fetching a pie, either. “Why not just get a frozen one from the store?” he asked.

Doh. I am obviously sick. Why didn’t I think of that? Mrs. Smith’s must make a blueberry pie. I’ve eaten it in the past. So I leave it to him to pick one up on the way home from work.

I was sleeping when he got home, so when I finally woke up, I went downstairs and discovered that once again I have the Best Boyfriend Ever!

Unable to find one at the store, he bought stuff and made one for me! OMG, I know! He is just too awesome!!!

He didn’t put a traditional top crust on it, which is what I expected, but a dutch crumbled one instead. I feared it would make the pie too coffee cakey, but no.

It. Was. Delicious. He served it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and yummmmmmy!

Yup. March 14 is now solidly Pi Day in my book.