Bacon and Eggs (by Biggs)

I actually forgot I was making dinner tonight until I went to the bottle-shop on the way home from work. I had to quickly decide what would go well with the beer I'd just bought. Obvious choice really, bacon and eggs.

I was coming off the high of having made excellent poached eggs last weekend and thought that was now a locked in skill-set. Alas, turns out it's not and I fucked it up totally. I essentially hard-boiled the eggs, but in water without the shell.

But, what the saying? Even bad bacon and eggs is excellent bacon and eggs.

I also served some spinach and a slice of olive bread that had been fried off in bacon fat.

Chorizo Burgers and Potato Gems (by G)

I'm not an idiot... when I made fresh chorizo for tortillas the other day I made sure I made more than enough fresh chorizo so it could be used in something else. That something else was chorizo burgers.

Biggs and I saw 'Man Discovers Food' the other day and one restaurant had a secret off-the-menu burger that had all their menu items on it - I decided to do something similar.

The burger has leftover coriander and pickles from the other night and some fried red onion and red capsicum because I had them.

To make the burgers extra special I also added a thick layer of cheddar cheese spread - awesome.

The potato gems are a healthy alternative to oven fries - probably....

Pea, Ricotta and Ham Pasta (by Biggs)

All I knew about dinner tonight was that it was going to be easy and from my 'Healthy Cookbook'. I decided on pasta (because what's easier than pasta?) and did the old 'pick a number between x and y' game with G. This is the page I ended up on.

My week has been a little discombobulated so G very generously agreed to get the 4 ingredients I needed on his way home from work - basil, lemon, ricotta and ham. I had a bunch of partly used packets of pasta at home to use up and a bag of peas and that's all that was required.

The pasta was cooked and the rest was whizzed up and stirred through. Dinner was quite delicious. G was impressed that it had no 'real cheese' in it. Little does he know that I used the opportunity to also use up some packet cheese dregs from the freezer.

Chorizo Tortillas (by G)

Some time ago I was twiddling about on the internet looking for tortilla ideas and saw 'Chorizo Tortilla'. I didn't look into it at the time but had stored it in the back of my mind so that when, once again, I was looking for tortilla ideas last week it was at the top of my list.

 

Unfortunately they were referring to Spanish tortillas (the things made with eggs and set in a pan) so I improvised. I've made fresh chorizo before and remember it being pretty good and thought it would translate to a tortilla pretty well so I did that.

 

The chorizo is simply pork mince with a blended mix of chilli flakes, garlic, paprika, salt and pepper. A lot of garlic and a lot of paprika - I cut down the amount of chilli so as not to kill Biggs. Surprisingly the chorizo did not need to marinate for any length of time - it's pretty much good to go as soon as it is made.

 

I made a bit of a pickling liquid using cider vinegar and sugar and quick pickled some cucumber, red capsicum and red onion because I thought that would go well with the chorizo.  I also made a bit of a sauce by blending garlic and coriander into sour cream.

 

These tortillas were pretty awesome, the chorizo turned out almost perfectly - a little salty for my taste but not inedible so. If I could only summon up the energy to make my own flour tortillas again...

 

Pig-herd's Pie (by G)

Biggs had dinner plans tonight so I decided to experiment. My idea was to make an inverted Shepherd's pie with pork instead of lamb. First thing I made a ham stock by boiling ham in water, this was a base for the gravy.  For the filling I fried some onion and pork mince and added some chopped ham. Once that was cooked I stirred through some flour then added the ham stock. Once the sauce had thickened I filled some pre-made mashed potato bowls.

The potato bowls were made by mashing some potato, slopping it on an oven tray, trying tying to form it into a bowl shape with a spoon then blind baking it in the oven.  The blind baking did not do much for the consistency of the mashed potato.

Though laziness I bought a packet of frozen mixed vegetables, boiled them in some salted water and served them around the outside (round the outside) of the pie.

As an experiment this turned out okay, it was quite salty but you have to expect that when you dabble in cured pork.

Incidentally Biggs' dinner plans were scrapped so she was able to try my experimental pie, that was lucky. Whether it was good lucky or bad lucky I'm not too sure.

Pork with Cheese and Potato Nests and Veg (by G)

Basically this dinner is just a hunk of roasted pork with some boiled carrot and asparagus as sides to the cheese and potato nests. Biggs and I saw Rachel Khoo cook the potato nests on the TV the other day and they looked to be right down our alley. Potato matchsticks, bacon, onion, a dash of wine and some cheese baked in a muffin tin.

I don't know exactly what went wrong with my nests, possibly the variety of potato - maybe I didn't bake them high enough - they turned out more like cheese and potato piles. No matter, they were pretty tasty. They would have been even better if I had just bought normal bacon instead of 'English Style' bacon which was a bit flavourless. I also didn't bother to try and find the Rubuchon cheese recommended in the recipe, life is too short to track something like that down on a Sunday - I used a washed rind Camembert instead.

To add a little moisture to the meal I made a bit of a gravy by steeping some porcini and bacon in water then thickening if with a bit of flour and water - tasty.

One drawback with dinner was that the pork crackle did not crackle no matter what I did to it...

Old Bay Spicey Chicken (by Biggs)

Well, I fucked up. This chicken was practically inedible. It wasn't the Old Bay's fault. It was entirely mine. After the flavourless sweet potato fries I doubled up on the spice, then doubled up again for good luck. In the end, even with some lemon and parsley, it was awfully, awfully salty. Awfully salty. 

For once the salad was a welcome relief. Not too imaginative. In fact, the same as the one we had earlier in the week. And, garlic bread is always a winner. 

Macaroni and Cheese in a Cob Loaf (by G)

Cooking for one again - I had some other plans but by the time I had finished work I had a craving for macaroni and cheese.

Mac and Cheese has been featured a couple of times in the past on the blog so I had to put a twist on it - I put it in a bread loaf, genius!

There were a few other differences between this M 'n' C and my usual recipe. I slowly pan cooked some onion, bacon, mushrooms (that's different) and some garlic, then added paprika (never done that before).  For the cheese sauce I mixed flour and butter to make a roux, added milk to make white sauce, then added a mix of camembert and red Leicester cheese (that's a bit different). The pasta was not macaroni, I'm not sure what it is called but it had a 'S' cross-section - awesome.

After I had finished making the  macaroni and cheese I filled a sourdough cob loaf that I had previously hollowed out and oven baked it for a few minutes (I didn't want to cook it for too long or the bread could get hard).

All-in-all it was an excellent dinner - the volume was a bit of an issue though. It took me a good while to get through the whole thing.

If you are wondering about the lettuce, Biggs had it left over from last night's dinner and I had agreed to use it up, so I did.

Pie and Cheezels (by Biggs)

I was out for work drinks tonight so didn't have a dinner plan. As a result I just picked up a pie from the corner store, along with some beer and cheezels.

The only pie left was a steak and pepper pie. I love pepper. Infact, Bonnie gave me a book about pepper just this week. I've learnt all the terms for pepper descriptors and I would describe the pepper in the pie as "astringent cardboard".

Thursday Sausages and Salad (by Biggs)

This was Thursday night's dinner but I got to the blog a bit late - sorry readers!

You didn't miss much though.The motivation for this meal was to get through some more of our beloved Old Bay Spice. Apparently Old Bay Spice sweet potato fries are a popular thing so I went with that. They were a little disappointing because, even though I put two tablespoons of the spice on them they weren't very flavorful.

Other than that, the rest of the meal was sausages and a salad made up of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce. Sounds boring right but I did provide a selection of condiments to jazz things up a bit - mayonnaise, kewpie mayonnaise, ceasar dressing, thousand island dressing and sriracha.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Vegetable Medly (by G)

I wanted to wrap something in bacon today and chicken is the obvious choice.

To ensure the chicken was cooked I first steamed it, then marinated it for a bit in a mix of reduced soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sriracha and minced garlic, the wrapped it in some middle bacon and oven roasted it.

For nutritious reasons I also slow fried red onion, mushrooms, carrot, and asparagus. Once all those vege were tender I added some butter and corn flour then chicken stock and a dash of soy sauce to make a bit of a gravy.

When I was plating up I realised I had blanched some little potatoes earlier - I had meant to roast them but forgot, so I just added them as they were as a starchy side.

Dinner turned out pretty well - not complicated but plenty flavourful.

Burritos (by Biggs)

It's Tuesday and I had tortilla responsibilities. I also had blood donation responsibilities so knew I was going to be home too late to make tortillas.

Solution? Pick up some "Mexican" on the way home.

I picked up some jalapeño poppers and pork burritos. Better than I could cook but sort of average. Good heat on the poppers, nice coleslaw on the burrito, cool 'pig in sombrero' sticker on the take-away bag.

 

Sushi (by Biggs)

I met Bonnie at the Barracks tonight for the Italian Film Festival and, what goes better with Italian Films than sushi.

There was a train, it presented sushi so I had some - salmon, chicken, gyoza and spring rolls.

Then we walked into the wrong cinema and watched Pride - best Italian movie I've ever seen.

Bubble 'n' Squeak and Chevaps (by G)

As Biggs is off out this evening I decided not to go to too much effort for dinner. Bubble 'n' Squeak is traditionally a dish for using up leftover vegetables (particularly potato) and meat.

I didn't really have any left over vegetables, just cabbage and shallots. I fried the shallots and some garlic then added some chopped cabbage, boiled and smashed potatoes and blanched carrots.  I debated with myself for a long time as to whether bubble 'n' squeak has eggs in it - in the end, uncharacteristically, I decided it didn't. Just some butter and seasoning - oh, and I did add a whole habanero chilli as well, which is not in keeping with the traditional b'n's spirit.

Chevaps are just skinless European sausages - pretty tasty. They went pretty well with the vegetables, though it was, admittedly, a mistake to add the chilli - it didn't really fit with the comfort meal theme.

Duck Caesar Salad (by Biggs)

I meant to make myself a Caesar Salad a couple of weeks ago but only got around to it tonight. I wanted it to be a little different so decided on a duck theme. I don't think I've ever cooked duck before and I didn't do wonderfully tonight but I did follow all the rules. Cold pan, render out the fat, turn, cook for a handful of minute, put in a hot oven for a larger handful of minutes, rest rest rest.

The rest of the salad was cos lettuce and a pre-made dressing, Parmesan cheese, capers, pepper, garlic bread, bacon cooked off in the left-over duck fat and poached egg. I've never had much poached egg success but tonight went quite well.

According to Wiki, Caesar Salad is often served table-side. Since we don't have a dining table I decided against this step.

Steak with Pan-Asian Waldorf Salad (by G)

It's been a while since I've cooked so I decided to keep it pretty simple. Steak and Salad. Ideally I would have liked to have individual steaks for Biggs and myself but the smaller steaks were not great quality or different sizes, so I went with one jumbo steak - 400 grams, which is about the correct amount of steak for two people. I just seasoned it, pan fried it, then rested it on a bed of minced garlic and coriander.

For the salad I combined shredded cabbage, carrot, coriander, chilli, apple, toasted walnuts and spring onions then dressed it with a blend of Japanese mayonnaise, soy sauce and sesame oil.

For no particular reason - other than the fact that I wanted to eat blue cheese - I added some cubes of blue cheese to the plates.

I thought the salad dressing could have been more flavourful otherwise it was a pretty good meal. The cheese was excellent.

Crispy Salmon (by Biggs)

G loves mackerel so I decided to do a Mr O version for his first real dinner back in the country.

In the late afternoon I did a bit of a ring around various fish mongers to check if they had mackerel and alas, they did not. Everyone kept offering me Queen Fish but I freaked out and just got a couple of salmon fillets instead.

 The fish was hard fried for a few minutes on each side with salt, pepper and lemon rind and the rice was cooked....in a pot....of water.

The sauce was a delicious mix of garlic, ginger, spring onion, chili, lime zest and juice, coriander, sesame oil, soy sauce and maple syrup. The recipe suggested honey but I still have maple syrup in the pantry from making bacon jam so am trying to use some up at every opportunity. I think I'm starting to like it a little more than honey but perhaps that's just the strong influence of "The Wild Chef".

I promised G that dinner would be excellent....I don't think I was too far off. It was a little oily but I think that's just because I wanted to use up all the dressing. I was pretty happy the recipe called for 4 tablespoons of sesame oil. Usually people say more than a few drops will overpower a dish but I fucking love the flavour. The more the better I say.

Dinner was also topped with then more coriander, spring onions and chili. Fress and delissiouss.

Take-away Pizza (by Biggs)

G got back late tonight and we had a pre-arranged agreement that there would be beer and pizza waiting for him after being in transit for 36 hours or so.

I failed. But, he sorted it, and walked through the door with pizza under one arm and beer under the other.

The fiery one with chilies and jalapenos was the best. There were also some spicy chicken bits.

Spare Ribs and a Potato (by Biggs)

I was determined to do better at feeding myself this year while G was overseas. And I think I did really quite well for the month. Last year was pretty slim pickings so this year I tried a little harder and wanted to end on a high. And, what's higher than pork spare ribs? Well....nothing....but, the grocery store was all out so I went with beef spare ribs instead.

They were marinated overnight in maple syrup (because it needs to be used), tomato sauce, soy sauce, chili powder, garlic and ginger. I also threw in a few of the tortilla leftovers....some lime juice, coriander and fried onion / capsicum mix because I figured it couldn't hurt.

When I got home from work I used my usual cooking method. Throw them in a hot oven, drink a bottle of wine, once the wine's done they'll be cooked to perfection. And they were!

The only problem was that I planned to serve the ribs with potato and peas but I was distracted drinking wine. Once the ribs were ready I ate them and put a potato in the oven. Once that was ready I ate that and forgot about the peas. 

Dumpling Soup (by G)

At Incheon Airport, Seoul South Korea and the food options are excellent.

I decided to get beef dumpling soup - it is a classic Korean dish which I hadn't had up to that point. Surprisingly there were a lot of dumplings in the soup and good quality ingredients - mushrooms and such.

The soup base was a bit bland so I added some soy and vinegar which fixed it right up. This was a good economical airport meal with unlimited kimchi and pickled daikon.

Tofu Tortillas (by Biggs)

I thought about doing Tofu Tortillas a while ago but figured G would flip out if I did so I waited until he was away to trial it.

The tofu was marinated in a spice mix of cumin, fennel seeds, chili powder, garam masla, salt and pepper and fried off. Then I fried some onion, capsicum and coriander. Served with guacamole, sour cream, fresh coriander and lime it was pretty good. A little too healthy tasting which was only made worse by accidentally buying wholemeal tortillas.

Tortilla Tuesday Korea (by G)

I struggle in Seoul when it comes to dinner time, like anywhere where there are too many food options I end up spinning round in circles and choose just about the worst option available.

Just when I was getting to the point where I was going to just randomly go into any restaurant I came across a Korean/Mexican place - being Tuesday I decided this was a sign from the blog gods and went in.

Apparently the kids in Seoul have embraced Korean/Mexican because the place was hellish busy. I ordered kimchi quesadillas and a short-rib burrito. It wasn't much of a wait - about 20 minutes and the food, when it came, was not too bad.

My favourite was the quesadilla - I thought it could be soggy but the filling was a tasty beef/kimchi mix, and cheese is always a happy thing.

The burrito was also good, but I kind of regretted not ordering the spicy pork version...

Curry Prawns (by Biggs)

Tonight I decided on an Indian Curry Prawn dish. I'm going to say straight up.....it was delicious.

The prawns were marinated in a mix of garlic, ginger, turmeric, and garam masala then fried off quickly. They were then cooked down in a mix of onion, tomatoes, yoghurt and fresh coriander. Delicious!

My only concern is that I'm certain I'm going to come down with severe food poisoning tonight. When I ordered the prawns the guy went to get some cooked banana prawns in their shell. I stopped him and asked for the shelled raw green prawns to which he said "oh yeah, I forgot about them, they've been sitting there for ages".

What the fuck?! I'm definitely going to die tonight.

Spicy Stir-fried Pork (by G)

As usual - when there are almost unlimited food options I end up getting the least appetising meal possible. I wandered around for ages looking for something to eat that was not Korean barbecue - there were options but I passed them all by and found myself stranded and hungry so I ended up going into the next restaurant I found.  They had some delicious looking fried chicken but I though that would be a bit of a cop-out so I got the spicy stir-fried pork.

 

It was okay - not as spicy as I had expected. The pork certainly was not from a prime section of the pig. In all it was an adequate dinner.

Traditional Korean BBQ (by G)

Pizza (by Biggs)

Well, this was bound to happen. I was going to spend the day doing chores.

Turns out, I did not do chores.

This all down-spiraled into me ordering take away pizza.

That is all.

Salt and Pepper Tofu (by Biggs)

Tonight, I'm preemptively using up what would have been some left-over tofu. I'm not a big tofu fan but there is one dish I really like - salt and pepper tofu. To make it I figured you just dust the tofu in salt, white pepper and flour then fry it but given I have very little tofu experience I thought I should look it up to be on the safe side. I found a Neil Perry recipe and figured he knows what he's talking about.....and he does. He suggested dusting the tofu in salt, white pepper and flour then fry it....which I did.

The vegetables are pak choy, capsicum, carrot and broccoli. They were fried up with some oyster sauce, a touch of soy and some sesame oil. 

The tofu didn't super thrill me but it does make a great carrier of flavour.....and, let me tell you, salt and pepper is flavour. 

Ribs (by G)

During a post-dinner walk the night before I discovered a street behind my hotel in Busan where there is a row of sort-of semi-permanent tents serving food. I decided that that was where I was going to eat today - kind of like glamping in the city.

 

I was just surveying the food tent options when one of the owners saw me and waved me in like an air traffic controller - I just went with it.

 

It turned out to be a meat place - you just pick out the type of meat you want from behind the counter and the nice lady will cook it up for you. I went with pork ribs. They had already been blanched to the point where the meat was falling off the bone. To finish she quickly tossed the ribs in a wok with some carrot pieces and a spicy, sticky sauce.

 

I wasn't expecting her to serve up the whole bag of ribs - about enough for 3 to 4 people, but I've never backed down from a rib eating challenge. The guy I was sitting next to at the counter was enthusiastic about my order so I was expecting something good... and they were good. Served on a foil wrapped tray they continued to cook on a portable gas stove. It is a shame I didn't get a photo of the ribs a little later because they got a shiny brown glaze. I didn't have time to photograph though because the lady kept piling ribs into my bowl to eat. Cucumber, onion and green chilli on the side helped to freshen up the meal.

 

Part way through the meal a really drunk local staggered in and seemed very upset that I had eaten the last of the ribs - he expressed his displeasure by shouting at me and everyone else in the place.

 

I was kind of in the mood for a couple of beers but the lady insisted on soju so I had that instead - I picked the one with the hot lady on the bottle.

 

I'm just relieved that I managed to finish this whole meal for once - the quantities of food in South Korea as so vast that it's tough on the stomach.

 

 

 

Soju Girl Say: "Good job finishing all those ribs foreigner. If you weren't so bloated and sticky I would totally sleep with you".



Seafood Steam Boat (by Biggs)

After work today I met Nancy for a drink at Depo. Every few weeks we try to sneak in an afternoon cocktail or a glass of wine before she has to go home to feed and water the family but tonight, after a gin gimlet, she suggested we go out for dinner as well and was specifically on the mood for a steam boat. My dinner plan went from mediocre to marvelous in an instant.

We went with the seafood version steam boat with prawns, calamari and 'fish cake' and sides of cabbage, broccoli and noodles. 

The catch up with Nancy was wonderful and dinner definitely suited our moods - happy, fun and celebratory. And, as a bonus, delicious. 

Pork and Oysters (by G)

I arrived in Busan, South Korea in the early afternoon and immediately got down to the job of scoping out dinner.

There were many promising opportunities (one restaurant had a picture of a cartoon pig licking it's lips and giving the thumbs up - that's quite an endorsement).

In the end I saw a picture outside one place of roast pork slices and oysters - it was mostly the pork that appealed to me but the not-oft-found combination of pork and oysters was irresistible.

In the photo outside the restaurant it looked like a normal sized plate with a lot of pork and a small bowl of oysters - turns out it was a jumbo plate with an enormous amount of pork and not a bowl but a sickeningly huge mountain of oysters.  The problem with South Korea is that most of the really interesting food is designed to be shared by 4-6 people and I am only one people.

I won't lie to you, I did not eat all the food shown below. I ate all the pork - it was super delicious. I at most of the sides (except for one of the chillies and some lettuce). I drank all the beer (though it was a bit of a struggle).  I did not go anywhere close to eating all the oysters, I called it quits after about 15. Needless to say, there were a lot left. I tried to hide them under the remaining lettuce but I don't think anyone was fooled.

Great meal - too many oysters.

 

Biggs' holding page for this posts said "G has been sending through photos to the blog when he can on holidays.....between drunkenness and lack of interwebs. I load them up as they arrive and when I saw this photo I genuinelyl exclaimed outloud: "Holy Shit".

Holy Shit!"

Ramen (by G)

Just in Fukuoka (or Hakata whatever you want to call it) for the night before heading to South Korea by ferry on Friday.

I've been here before and didn't have to think about what to have for dinner - the yatai (street stalls) are famous and everywhere. I went to the cluster of stands on Nakasu Island because it's not on the road so is less subject to passers-by gawking at you eating.

I have a certain love/hate relationship with ramen, I love it because it is great - I hate it because I can't eat it properly, I don't got the slurp.

This was a good one, a super tasty pork broth, a slice of roast pork, wood ear fungus... and the noodles. Perfect.

Lamb and Sweet Potato Pie (by Biggs)

I was in the mood for a pie, but a pie with a twist so made this little lamb and sweet potato concoction.

I fried off some garlic, onion, lamb mince and sweet potato and added in some peas and all the leftover coriander and parsley I had in the fridge. Spices included were turmeric, coriander seeds and paprika....we seem to have run dry on cumin which I guess isn't surprising.

G had some filo pastry in the freezer I thought would work but I suddenly noticed a big claim on the front of the box that said "DO NOT FREEZE". Turns out they were right, by the time it defrosted it had also disintegrated into one million crumbs. Luckily, I had some puff pastry available too.

I don't know, my expectations were pretty high so I'm not sure if my disappointment in the resulting pie is justified, but - it was real. Real disappointment.

Stand-up Bar - Otsu (by G)

I was wandering around Otsu looking for somewhere to eat without success so I decided to stop and take a beer before resuming the search.

The bar I stopped at was pretty deserted and did not have any seats (downstairs) just a bar and some stand-up tables. The first beer went down pretty well, so I had another, and another in quick succession because the staff were ignoring me and I felt a bit awkward. Just as I was about to call it and leave someone asked me if I liked sake - I do, of course. Apparently they featured sake from the region and showed me a map on the wall with all the nearby regions. I ordered a sake.

After the sake they asked if I was hungry - I was. I couldn't really tell what they were serving and their English was not great so I just said 'Omakase' - I'll leave it to you. Parings of sake and food.

The first was mackerel (I think) sashimi. After the first pairing went down well the chef began to enjoy himself. The second pairing he described as, 'totally unique'. Sake and home made cheese cookies. Then oden, I think some other things (I was pretty drunk by this stage). I requested fried quail eggs at one point (and managed to photograph them). Someone upstairs ordered karagge chicken and the high-school student chef off-sider filtched a piece for me. After that I had some more beer - there are some unknowns towards the end.

It was such a great and unexpected experience. I spent about 5 hours there, just eating and drinking and watching the chef and his tiny female offsider kick ass. A steady stream of people came in and ordered huge amounts of food and the two of them just calmly went about knocking the dishes out, all the time periodically dragging me outside to view an on-going lunar eclipse.

At one point, right in the middle of the rush, the chef came over and asked if I wanted something to eat. 'You're really busy - later will do', I said. 'No, G. Don't worry about it'. He said and brought me another pairing.

Oh, boy, did I get wasted. Not mumbling and stumbling drunk - just thoroughly, thoroughly wankered. It was a miracle I woke up in time to get my train in the morning. A quick check of my wallet in the morning revealed that I had probably walked out without paying at the end of the night.  I quickly hustled my way back to the bar to find it shuttered so I slipped some money under the roller-door with a note of apology and my e-mail address in-case I owed them more money.  I haven't heard from them - I just hope it was the right place...

Steak and Peas (by Biggs)

I knew I was going to have steak tonight and did a mighty amount of thinking about what would make a nice side. I've never cooked turnips before so found a kickin' turnip and leek recipe to cook.

Alas, today got a little bit difficult and I couldn't face going to a grocery store after work so went with what I had in my house. Fortunately, I have peas and bacon jam in my house.

Turned out to be a kickin' dinner after all.

I've also worked out the perfect time required to rest a steak. Just take it out of the fry pan, get heavily involved in watching competitive cooking shows and by the time you remember you were in the middle of making dinner the steak will be perfectly rested.

Convenience Store Delights (by G)

Otsu is not the most exciting place on earth and at some point in the evening I slipped into a boredom induced coma and didn't wake until abut 9pm. I didn't really feel like going to a restaurant so I went to the quicki-mart.

On the menu was a steam bun, some jerky and a clutch of sandwiches. Used to be that the only people I trusted to make my sandwiches were the Japanese - I have relaxed my standards since then, and so have they. I've noticed a decline in the care and attention taken in sandwich preparation this time around. No matter, everything tasted good. I also had a couple of beers.

Buffalo Chicken Tortillas (by Biggs)

I had a handful of buffalo wings left over on Sunday mainly as a result of them being too damn hot for me to eat. But, combined with a nice, fresh salsa and some sour cream they were entirely edible...in fact, quite delicious.

I sensibly removed the meat from the bones before wrapping them inside a tortilla. The salsa was cherry tomatoes, red onion, lemon juice and coriander.

Yakitori (by G)

After the hustle and bustle of a Japanese formula one weekend I thought it would be good to go somewhere quiet and take it easy (which is all I basically ever do, but this time I would do it somewhere quiet). Otsu is on the banks of lake Biwa and, I gather, a seasonal tourist town. Once the last cherry blossom has fallen the people clear out and the place is deserted.

Instead of spending the afternoon prospecting dinner options I decided to take a stroll along the lake and up the mountain and take in the sights. This was an error because when dinner time came around I was not sure where to eat. I considered a couple of places with crumbed and fried prawns and pork chops and the like but persisted and found a yakitori bar.  Keen readers of the blog will know that I recently had yakitori in Tokyo, but that was a bit dissatisfying so I decided to try again.

When I went in there was a little confusion over my order, the guy was pushing me to order two sticks while I wanted the whole chicken menu. The misunderstanding was soon resolved and what came next was the second best yakitori I've ever had.  The liver and cartilage were better than I've had before. The ovary was something I have never had before - I initially thought the round blob on the end was a fried egg yolk which I guess, in a sense, it was. The texture was just the same - the tubes turned out to be a lot gnarlier than shown on the menu, confronting but not bad.

The leg meat with beef steak plant had a tangy sort of raspberry chilli sauce on it that was unusual and good.

This is the kind of place I could easily spent a couple of hour in under other circumstances but I was the only diner in the whole place and, much as I dislike people, they are useful for creating atmosphere in a restaurant.  Without that it can sometimes be a bit awkward.

Mushroom, Asparagus and Tomatoes on Toast (by Biggs)

It's been a while since a solid meal of vegetables so tonight I decided on a simple end-of-long-weekend dinner of mushrooms, asparagus and tomatoes on toast.

The tomatoes were oven roasted while I fried off the mushrooms and asparagus.

For anyone who thinks this may actually be healthy.....incorrect. I loaded it up with salt and butter and couldn't resist stirring through some bacon jam at the last minute. Fuck it was good.

More Convenience Store Products (by G)

After staying back and watching the teams pack up after most other spectators had left the Japanese grand prix I then managed to get myself pretty badly geographically embarrassed on my walk back to the train station and as a consequence caught the second last train of the night and got back to Nagoya at about mid-night. I had been eating all day so I was not too hungry but got myself a mid-night snack regardless.

I am a big fan of convenience stores in Japan - so charming that you can buy a business shirt on your way to work after getting wasted and sleeping on the footpath the night before. In order of preference I like Lawson Station, 7 holdings/7-11 and Family Mart.

I'm not sure where tonight's snack came from but there was only one sad piece of chicken in the hotbox, no sausages or steamed buns, so I got that. I was a little uninspired and ended up with some pre-sliced cheese and salami and a non-sliced salami.

The chicken was super greasy, and not in a good way. The pre-sliced cheese and salami were not too bad, but the unsliced snack sized salami was not to my liking at all. Weird textures and flavours -  I ended up not eating the whole thing.