Trying To Cook Japanese Food

Since the man was on a cooking streak, we called the friends over for dinner.

The man decided to be adventurous and do a Japanese menu. Asian food's not his forte. But he wanted to try those that he felt he could. Nothing fancy, just simple cooked food. We went to the supermarket. He disappeared amongst the shelves while I zoomed off elsewhere to buy umbrellas and look at shoes.

All afternoon, there were delicious soup-like smells wafting from the kitchen. In the big pot, there was oden (Japanese stew). Big slabs of miso cod had been earlier marinated and sat grilling in the oven. The man fried up some mentaiko pasta. There was good old Japanese rice boiling in the cooker. There was also a beef salad that came with an unexpectedly tasty spicy ginger and vinegar dressing.

The friends loved the man's experiments! They especially enjoyed the oden. The man is watching a concert of The Pixies on dvd and feeling really happy now.

Dessert was, unfortunately, store bought. The rich nutella cake and marscapone cheesecake from Da Paolo's deli were adequate. 2 big squares of cakes to share among 8 of us. Both cakes were rich, so a nibble for each was more than enough. Feeling really healthy now.

The point of the evening was also to check out the first episode of V, the remake. Don't know what to make of it yet. So can't wait for more episodes to compare to those we saw when we were children!