Tag: food

Leisurely Afternoon

, , Slice of LifeLeave a Comment on Leisurely Afternoon
"Watching Movies" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO640
 “Watching Movies” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！How’s it going?

Today was a schizophrenic Saturday, in that I worked a few hours this morning 😩, but then had a totally relaxing afternoon ☺️.

On the way home from work, I stopped at In-N-Out Burger and picked up some food 🍔 for Koa and I. Normally we get Double-doubles or just a cheeseburger, but today we both got 3×3’s, which are burgers with three patties and three slices of cheese. I thought we should try that once in our lives.

"3x3" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/13 sec, ISO3200
 “3×3” Cedar Park, 2016

As you can see from the photo, they were pretty massive. Aside from having more meat and cheese, it pretty much was the same as their regular offerings, but now that we’ve tried the 3×3, it’s back to our normal-sized burgers.

After lunch, Koa went to the park to meet his friends and I had the rest of the afternoon to do as I pleased which meant putting Star Wars: The Force Awakens on with the surround-sound system cranked way up. It was great! I have to say, Episode 8 is my favorite of the Star Wars movies.

My favorite part started when Rey and Finn are running to the Quad Jumper and she says “that one is garbage!” referring to the Millenium Falcon. My heart soared when the Falcon came into view the first time, and then the ensuing dogfight was just amazing! I thought that dogfight was the best of all the movies so far, and it was just 3 ships! There was so much more action that even the epic battle at the beginning of Episode 3, which had hundreds of ships and seemed to go on forever. Bigger is not always better where spaceship battles are concerned.

That dogfight at the beginning of Episode 8 was just one of several moments when my heart was pounding hard, and there were a couple times when I even teared up a bit too… so I know Episode 8 is my favorite. It was an emotional thrill-ride for me.

I hope you had nice Saturday!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

🍙 Food

Favorite Food

Bucket List

Fish and Chips – England
Banh Mi; Pho – Vietnam
Champuru – Okinawa
Churrascaria – Brasil
Lobster – Maine
Tagine – Morocco
Bœuf Bourguignon – France
Dim Sum – Hong Kong
New York Pizza
Okonomiyaki – Osaka
Poutine – Canada
Stinky Tofu – Taiwan
Paella – Barcelona
Hot Dry Noodles – Wuhan

Wurstfest

, Food, Slice of Life1 Comment on Wurstfest
"Bier Time" New Braunfels, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/35 sec, ISO6400
 “Bier Time” New Braunfels, 2016

Hello!

Today was a fun day because we went with some friends to “Wurstfest” in New Braunfels for the evening. Wurstfest is a German festival where the main activities are drinking beer, eating German food, and listening to traditional German and German-inspired music.

The weather for the one-hour drive was terrible, with heavy rain ☔ and a bit of traffic but once we arrived to the festival, the rain let up and eventually went away and we had a wonderful evening. I think it worked out perfectly because there wasn’t a huge crowd, especially at the beer and food lines. For instance, the potato pancake line is often over half an hour wait, but last night it was just a couple of minutes. Also I am guessing Sunday is not their busiest day since there is a BOGO admission ticket for Sunday through Wednesday. At any rate, it was a great day to go to Wurstfest.

"Marketplace" New Braunfels, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/280 sec, ISO12800
 “Marketplace” New Braunfels, 2016

For food, we tried a few different things including sausage, sauerkraut, & pita sandwich; potato pancakes with applesauce; funnel cake; and fried pickles. It was all pretty tasty, but I’m sure my arteries weren’t liking any of it. Then of course there was plenty of beer to be had 🍻. Since I was driving, I only had a little bit, but that was good because we did save a bit of money. 😝

"Ferris Wheel" New Braunfels, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/70 sec, ISO12800
 “Ferris Wheel” New Braunfels, 2016

For entertainment, Wurstfest features lots of live music, mainly polka bands, and we watched a band called Yodelblitz who were really funny. And there was quite a bit of Chicken Dance going on during the festival! 🐔

Wurstfest takes place every year and it’s definitely worth your while to go see what it’s all about at least once, especially if you live in Central Texas. Just be sure to bring an empty stomach and a full wallet!

Have a great evening!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

Why Hawaii Poke Is Taking The Mainland By Storm | Hawaii Public Radio-HPR2

FoodLeave a Comment on Why Hawaii Poke Is Taking The Mainland By Storm | Hawaii Public Radio-HPR2

According to the Wall Street Journal, poke is one of the culinary trends of 2016. The popular raw-fish dish has taken the mainland by storm, with poke

Source: Why Hawaii Poke Is Taking The Mainland By Storm | Hawaii Public Radio-HPR2

Nice story above fron HPR about poke. I know that here in Austin a few poke shops have sprung up, and even one of the local Costco stores was carrying a couple different kinds of poke. I’m happy to see it become more available here in Texas, even if it isn’t super-authentic.

I remember as a kid when my grandparents would visit us every summer and Christmas that they would bring us a bunch of food from Maui. And one of the items was poke. Not sure if they just brought the ingredients and made it at our house or bought it already made, but I never liked it back then. But I love poke now!

It’s essential to include poke in a Hawaiian feast:

90 / 365

(click on the photo to view on Flickr, where you can see notes about the different kinds of dishes)

Cold Weather Food

, , Food2 Comments on Cold Weather Food
"Oden" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO2000
 “Oden” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！How’s it going?

Today the rain arrived and the temperatures dropped a bit. As the days get cooler, three Japanese dishes come to mind: Curry, Nabe, and Oden. We had the last one this evening, and it was delicious!

Oden is hard to describe to Westerners. It’s kind of a bunch of different things that are kept warm in a yummy broth, then served in a bowl. Typical items found in oden are sausage, hard-boiled egg, tofu, daikon, konyaku, fishcake, and potato. We like to serve it with some hot mustard on the side for some heat. And of course white rice. 🍚 You just pick what you want out of the pot and enjoy!

Oden is popular in the wintertime, and you can even find it in convenience stores in Japan, sort of like how there are hot dogs and burritos in a 7-11 here in the States. I’ve only gotten oden at a Japanese convenience store once, but I remember that it was pretty good.

Of course, our home-cooked oden is the best! Another wonderful comfort food to enjoy with family. If you have the chance to try it, please do.

On a completely different note, the system drive in my desktop computer 🖥 died this past weekend, so I replaced it with an SSD unit. I must say, it’s super-fast compared to the old HDD 💽! The boot-time is down to just several seconds… it’s one of the best “upgrades” I made to this computer, which is now over four years old, but running fast once again.

I have a second, larger hard drive in this computer to store all my data on (which I keep backups of), so I didn’t lose anything important. However, one thing that I did lose was my collection of Lightroom Presets that I collected and created. There were several that I used often, but luckily I was able to recreate them using History panel, which kept a record of past changes to edited images. (I keep my Lightroom catalog on the data drive, so it was backed up) I guess I need to add the Presets folder to my backup profile. 😃

I hope you had a nice Thursday!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto