Curious Notions

I’m so sushied out. Today was making sushi night (see previous entry) and yesterday I went on a date at Mikado’s. My long overdue first time there. We had three rolls, my favorite being the White Tux and the Crunchy Kazi. The White Tux tasted clean and fresh.. smooth. Enjoyed the fried onion fakes. They sprinkle just enough to give you a hint of that fried onion flavor.

The one with the eel and crunchy yellow things is the Crunchy Kazi. Tasty.

And the delicious White Tux.

I also tried sea urchin for the first time. It reminded me of a lesser version of raw oysters. I wouldn’t try it again. But I do like Mikados better than Musashinos, but I’ll still be firecely loyal to Musashinos soley for their Avocado Kama Evo (#1 on my Top 3 orgasmic foods)

Tonight, Lily took Jamie, Maryanne, Courtney and I under her wing and showed us the way, the way of making delicious sushi. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Our host :)

Cut up avocado, cucumber, and shredded imitation crab

Some of the fish fillets. I think this tray was Esoclar and Tuna. (Also had Salmon, White Tail, Red Snapper.

You can get Unagi in a package. You can also get rice vinegar in powder form (used to season the rice).

Yummy. We used measuring cups as dipping dishes for the soy sauce. How resourceful are we?

Last night I bought my first anti-aging cream. I’ve been meaning to get eye cream (I haven’t yet) and instead, started off with general anti-aging serum. I called Jessica about it since she’s the queen of anti wrinkle products. She was actually too advanced even for me. She didn’t have any personal recommendations for me since she gets her stuff from infomericals. She told me she heard Oil of Olay, the Regenerist line is ranked as the best on the market . So I got my first vial.

My skin does feel a little tighter this morning.

Maybe my next endeavor will be the eye cream.

:( So it begins.

Tonight, I have a date. I like dates.

I always get easily affected around this time of the month. I appreciate kind words and cuddles a lot more than I do the other 3 weeks of the month. My feelings get hurt much easier than the other three weeks. I get more annoyed more readily. So some days are fantastic even when the good moments are really just mundane moments. All it takes is a sweet unexpected compliment or a random phone call from an old friend. Other days it’s the opposite and all it takes is a confrontational voicemail or flippant remarks by someone you care about. It wears me down and I’m ready to go hide in a movie theatre by myself or just go shopping.

I think I’ll opt for shopping tonight.

Located on Greystone and Mopac. I’ve driven by this quaint place quite often and always noticed it’s packed during peak hours and the patio is always packed as well. So today we finally tried it out. From the outside it looks pretty humble and then you go in and you see it actually has a lot of pride. Here’s a couple of snapshots from Chile’s insides.

Pretty.

The waiter was GREAT. I wish I could remember his name so if you’ll ever go you’ll know who will take great care of you. We confirm that there’s another location right across the street from Clementine and Hoovers (next to East Side Cafe and Vivo). How did I miss it? All the aforementioned places are some of my favorite places. I was JUST at Clementine and Hoovers this Saturday. Here’s our food.

The salsa was made out of tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, and garlic. They roasted it to give it a smokey flavor and look. It was good.

How yummy looking is that?

These tacos ended up being a testament to how nice our waiter was. He said if the pickled cabbage wasn’t to our liking he’d be happy to replace the entree with something else. We took him up on that offer.

My order. I liked it enough. Definitely unique. Shrimp enchiladas with a chipotle sauce and a cilantro sour cream. As for shrimp enchiladas go, I prefer Hula Hut’s Spinach and Shrimp Tubular Taco.

Overall, I liked (not love) the place. Definitely unique, a nice break from the mundane.

I’d try it out again.

People often ask me why I’ve been babysitting so long, especially since I’m no longer in college and I do have a day job.

Well, look at this one’s face.

I’m sitting in Clementine after having dinner at Hoover’s next door. There’s a one man band performing here and he’s crooning, “How precious each life is…” and blowing (or is gumming?) on a harmonica in between stanzas. Before Hoovers, I killed a couple of hours at Borders trying to study with Cindy. It’s difficult for me to study with some people. Especially if we’re both talkers. Now it’s difficult to read because of this one man show. He’s now screaming his song.

I’ve been somewhat of a regular now at Borders at the Domain ever since I started to study for my looming clinical research certification test. I prefer my smaller locally run coffee shops, but Borders is literally down the street from my new apartment. The barista is Vietnamese and we’ve already been pretty candid with each other. She told me the first time she told her boyfriend she loved him and I’ve told her why I’m not really confident with my Vietnamese. I found myself 2 other regulars today. One girl I’ve noticed twice before. She comes in to read Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in my first experience with a vampire series just released earlier this month. It sold 1.4 million copies the first 24 hours it was on sale. The movie of the first novel is coming out this December. Sadly, I have my own copy of Breaking Dawn and though I need not bum it off a bookstore, I haven’t had time to enjoy leisurely reading because of the test. I cannot wait to crack my own copy. The other regular is actually a couple. A white man and an Asian lady with hair down to her knees. They come here often reading and drinking coffee. I think the man recognized me today too. He gave me one of those “Hi, I know you.” smiles.

The perk of studying at independent coffee shops is that there usually is free wifi.

I’m drinking a steamer. I’ve never had a steamer before. Steamed milk with whatever flavor you want. I picked pumpkin spice. Mmmm pumpkin. For the first time in my life I’m looking forward to winter. I’m a summer girl at heart. I’m happiest in my summer skirts and summer dresses and I rather sweat than shiver. But winter offers comforts like pumpkin spice and blankets.

I have my second writing club meeting tomorrow and I still don’t have any writing to showcase. I just.. don’t know how to make shit up. Maybe I’ll work on that for a bit…

Cindy made my lunch to take to work today. We get lunch catered at work but everyone in my department brought their lunches the day before. They’re all trying to watch what they eat since we get catered deliciously unhealthy foods. So Cindy treated me to a packed lunch for today. I forgot to snap a picture before everything else was eaten but she also left me a note :) How cute. I’ve never been on the receiving end of lunch notes before.

She also packed 2 things I’m going to start buying. Orange creme yogurt, it taste like a melted orange creme pop and wasabi almonds! These almonds are so much better than the popular wasabi peas.

Last night, we watched Old Boy after Cindy recommended it. Korean foreign film that she said was “really disturbing.” Someone else said that he’s never seen anything like it. Cindy said it was a blend of Silence of the Lambs and Saw. After seeing it, I think it’s a blend of Count of Monte Cristo, Saw, Hostel and weirdly enough it reminds me of a R rated Amelie. There’s a thin thread of light hearted a la Amelie in this psychological thriller. That said, it’s not really grotesque as Saw and Hostel, though it does have a couple of moments.

So here’s the bare bone plot. Man gets imprisoned for 15 years without ever knowing why.

I told Lily about it and to my delight, she told me this was actually the 2nd part of a 3 movie series. I netflixed Lady Vengence and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. Can’t wait.

4 out of 5 stars. I loved Old Boy.

Sunday night, Cindy and I made shepherd’s pie for five. It was nice because I only had to buy sour cream, cream, potatoes, and meat. Everything else I already had. I dumped some frozen peas, carrots, and corn for the veggies and chopped up the rest of the onion I had left over from the BBQ spaghetti last week. It was delicious. Used a Rachel Ray recipe as a baseline. For the ground meat, used beef and pork instead of her turkey. Added a few more vegetables and a little more sodium to her gravy recipe and we had the perfect hearty meal for winter. Cannot wait to make this again when it gets a little cooler. Such comfort food.

P.S. Thanks Cindy for the photos.