One of our family traditions is that we have a lovely fondue dinner to celebrate Valentine’s Day. This year, the dinner was on the 15th because we attended a Chinese New Year’s celebration on the 14th. But, the fondue was excellent as always (even tastier this year, in my opinion) and the four of us really enjoyed ourselves. I’m not sure how or when the fondue tradition started, but it is something we look forward to every year. It’s so yummy!
This year, the kids had LED ice cubes in their drinks, while Mariko and I enjoyed a bottle of Prosecco. The cheese fondue was accompanied by French bread, bratwurst, cauliflower, potato, and ravioli. The chocolate fondue (not pictured) was accompanied by banana, strawberries, and marshmallows. Just FYI, Mariko and I had a cheese fondue that had white wine added, and our chocolate fondue had some chocolate liqueur added. Mmmm. So good!
Photo info: SONY SLT-A77V, 35mm, f/2, 1/90 sec, ISO400 Ehoumaki for Setsubun
Yesterday was Setsubun (節分)! As always, Mariko made delicious ehoumaki (恵方巻き) sushi rolls, which I always look forward to. For those of you not familiar with this tradition, you are supposed to face the lucky direction, which happens to be West-Southwest for this year, and eat your sushi-roll without speaking. It’s fun and delicious!
A nice thing has been happening at my office: Food Trucks! Once in a while we’ll have a food truck parked outside the building some of them have really interesting lunch selections. A few of the trucks have served what I’d call fusion food, which is a combination of two (or more) types of food. For instance, I had some bulgogi quesadillas (combining Korean and Mexican cuisines). It sounded like a great combination and I was excited to try. I expected it to be delicious!
At first, it did taste yummy, but about halfway through I kind of just wanted bulgogi with rice, or a regular quesadilla. This dish reminded me of some kind of concoction you’d make from leftovers. For instance, say I have some leftover bulgogi from a restaurant, but I don’t have any rice to go with it. However, I do find some frozen tortillas so I substitute that for the rice. In the case of the bulgogi quesadillas, I didn’t feel the combo was better than the original foods, which have been “perfected” over many years already. I did enjoy the quesadillas (the bulgogi was yummy!), but felt like it missed the mark a bit.
On the flipside, I tried the “Kimchi Fries Burrito” which was AMAZING! I think the ratio of flavor leaned towards the Korean side of things, with the fries reminding me of the potato you sometimes get as a side dish at Korean BBQ. The tortilla and cheese were probably only about 10% of the taste. I’m guessing I enjoyed the Kimchi Fries Burrito more than the quesadilla because of the fact that it was more true to one side of the combination rather than a 50-50 split.
So I guess what I realized is that with fusion food, as with all other things, you really need to try before you form an opinion. Also, the more I think about it, I tend to like the extremes of things and if you are going to do something, go all in.
Regarding the food in this post, the quesadilla and burrito were from Chilantro, and the nachos (which were super!) in the photo are from Guac n Roll.
in 2011 I visited Osaka and had a super-spicy curry at 上等カレー near Tsukamoto Station. It was soooo hot that I was in a daze. Mariko and the kids said I was crying, but I beg to differ! My eyes were watering, yes, but that is different, isn’t it? Also, I had a sort of hiccup due to the extreme heat and it hurt to breathe too quickly. My facial muscles were slack. Take a look at the photo below and see for yourself.
Super Spicy Curry Face
Regardless of how each of us recall that meal, the memory of it is a great one, and I wanted to experience the same spiciness during this vacation as the one in 2011. So I asked Mariko if we could go to the same curry shop, but she said there was a branch of the same shop near where we would be that day and that we should go there. Sounded good to me! Outside the shop is the ticket vending machine where you choose what you want to order, and put in your money. We noticed that there was no options for spiciness level and that kind of set off some alarms. We ordered the regular curry and saw that there were bottles of chili powder on the tables so you can adjust the level of spiciness yourself. I added a few dashes, and it still wasn’t as hot as it was in 2011. Back then, the cook just asked us how spicy we wanted it, and I told him “very spicy”. But now, the self-serve chili powder just wasn’t cutting it! I added several more dashes of powder, but it wasn’t getting any hotter – I think I maxed out that chili powder’s capabilities. I was pretty disappointed.
The curry itself was pretty tasty, but I was hoping to have the same experience as before! So, for the next time, I asked Mariko to do a little research so we can visit a curry shop with super spicy curry, just like the one in 2011. In fact, we might try the Tsukamoto shop again, but I don’t know if they will just have the self-serve chili powder which would be disappointing.
Curry Shop near Tsukamoto Station
Just for reference, if you are familiar with Coco Ichiban Curry, where they have a spiciness level 1-10, I normally will order the level 10. I’d say the curry in 2011 was probably a 15+.
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