Goodbye Toyomatsu

my favorite unagi restaurant on the planet has closed. waaaaaahhhh! so sad. but with the rising price of eel and the old man wanting to retire, it was a long time coming. my uncle and i went to have our last amazing eel experience the day before the door shut forever.

eel bone kara-age (the salty crunchy bones were great with beer):

shirayaki: plain grilled eel that had been steamed then grilled. this is probably my favorite. it is eaten with plenty of chopped garlic, wasabi and a bit of soy sauce. so damn good.

anaju: the classic eel meal. grilled eel basted with a sweet and soy sauce. deelish!

i know it looks empty but it's just the angle. this place was packed, even for lunch!

thank you for an amazing dining experience!

love in a box translated to the plate

Care packages: Ah, the joy of distant family.

my sister sent me an awesome one 2 days ago. it was filled with stuff i'd bought and either had sent to her house (like the spices or the unpictured hosiery and dresses) or forgotten the last time i'd been home (like the couscous) PLUS a few gems she got me herself. one of them was truffle oil.


aw yeah. so what's a girl who has no experience in this magical stuff do? she calls her sister who says, "use it as a finishing oil. add some at the end of pastas and risottos and stuff." pasta, you say? why not mac and cheese? why not bacon mac and cheese? i had some thick cut bacon left over and i went out and got some white cheddar. here is a basic recipe that has the same concept but i think uses way too much of everything. i cut out all of the cream, just used white cheddar, only used 2 Tbsp of butter, used the bacon fat to crisp up the panko, and drizzled a bit of the truffle oil on top after it came out of the oven to retain it's flavor and aroma. the result? pretty fucking good, if i do say so myself:


also made a corned beef with cabbage, taters, and carrots. got it shipped from the meatguy but it was waaaaay too salty, even with the washing of the beef and the change of water after boiling. but now that i have my own pinking salt and juniper berries, i think i might try to make my own if i can find a decent cut of brisket . . . .


the other yummy dish from this week was dinner 3 nights ago. it's steak with parmesean butter on a bed of spinach drizzled with some reduced balsamic vinegar. it's basically this recipe from epicurious with minor tweaks. YUM. i like my steak bloody (well done is overdone in my book) and i didn't add the extra shot of sugar in the balsamic sauce that the recipe calls for. it's a great mix of flavors. on the side: garlic and enoki fried rice and yes, that IS a jar of cheapy red australian wine on the side:


and the final glorious thing in the care box? this book:


i'm gonna be making stuff from this book all the time. between the recipes in this book and the truffle oil madness i have just been afflicted with, i'm going to be a thousand pounds again before the year is out.

Hanami 2012

probably the same walk i took last year -- can't remember -- but it's still beautiful.

shots along the shakuji river:

a small temple in akabane:

by the arakawa river in akabane:

sweet tooth

i've been cooking a lot. A LOT. when i was home, my foodie sister told me about the desserts she had at momofuku milk bar. she described the blueberry cream cookie as the only cookie that almost made her cry. so yes, i had to have one (because i have no sense of self control and lord knows when the next time i will be in ny), but what's a girl to do? i made them myself.

ok, the recipes are very complicated. there's a lot going on. recipes inside recipes. but damn good. no, i did not take pictures. yes, i made more of their recipes.

The momofuku obsession kicked into full gear. i made the cornflake/chocolate chip/ marshmallow cookies but with rice cereal instead of cornflakes -- they were what i had in the pantry -- followed by the momofuku birthday cake filled with liquid cheesecake for G. G tends to be my guinea pig for most of my cooking adventures. if i didn't make dinner for him once a week, i would probably be living on sammies 7 days a week. as it turns out, i make full, balanced meals every week with leftovers that assure me a good meal for most of the week. yes, the other days tend to be sammiches.

for the guinea pig's birthday supper, i roasted a lamb leg and made feta chips along with the gianormous birthday cake. the scraps of the cake and the left over liquid cheesecake and frosting got mixed with the scraps which were then rolled into balls and dipped in white chocolate and rolled into the milk crumbs. decadent, delicious, and sweet. not overly sweet for my taste but i think G was ready to go into sugar shock after his second slice.

the lamb leg went into a pot with carrots and onions to make a rich stock which i then used to make a brown rice rissotto that week. also muy delish!

on the sammy kick, i have to say, i made a pretty kick ass condiment for grilled cheese sammies: onion bacon jam. i put in my lunch today and it was damn good:


today i decided i would try for a lighter sweet and made these nutella cookies:


i read a recipe i tried in the past and thought was just ok, i added a few ingredients and voila! chewy in the middle, crisp on the edges, the nutella giving it the distinct sweetness with the instant coffee crystals, chopped bitter chocolate and walnuts giving the cookies a bit more depth. yum. these, i could eat several without sugar shock.

i think the cooking kick will stick for a while. perhaps there will be more pictures . . . .

New Family!

urban family has grown by one! my favorite couple has adopted a bitty little french bulldog named Lakritze -- german for licorice:

soooooo cute!