Food Games

While in Japan, we encountered a little bit of a language barrier and although my husband had learned some basic Japanese, it was still difficult. Fortunately nearly every restaurant we went to had pictures of the food on the menus. Yay! So easy to point to what you want as you order, right?

Unless you don't really know what you are ordering.

At one restaurant in particular, we ordered our food and when it arrived, we enjoyed a game of 'Guess That Fried Food.'
The plate (pictured above) was definitely a puzzle. What exactly were we going to eat? I'll admit, I hesitantly tried two of them, but gladly left the other three up to my hubby to sample and inform me. I'm an adventurous eater only up to a point.

The stick containing eggs was the easiest to recognize. The fish and the two chicken weren't hard either. But the pork was a little tougher to detect. Funny how fried food starts to lose its identity.

Once the enigmas had been identified, we dove in. Fried food on a stick served with dipping sauce. Yum :)

It was a fun game and we had a good time and several laughs, but if I had a choice in future, I'd love to know what the food is beforehand. :)
We followed it up with some sashimi. From fried food to the delicate raw fish. Quite a contradiction but a nice balance actually.

AM/PM for dessert?

Gourmet dessert at an AM/PM? You've got to be kidding. But actually, I'm not.

These petite cups of tiramisu were so divine, that we went back frequently on our travels and bought more. Dessert from AM/PM? Really? Absolutely.
Both my husband and I loved them. I'm a huge dessert fan but if it's not worth the calories, I'm done. I'm not one of those people that has to eat every bite - I've left many desserts on my plate, even at gourmet places - but if it's good, it's gone. And these little delectable cups were licked clean every time.

Unfortunately I didn't write down the brand name (and we don't have AM/PMs here) but if you happen to be walking near an AM/PM, it's worth it to go take a look. You might be surprised at what you find.

Japanese Ice Cream Sundae

I love ice cream. I'm not shy about it. I'm a huge fan and if you give me a choice between a candy bar or the cold delicious ice cream, I would choose ice cream without blinking an eye.

However, I do like to combine the two and I love to put candy on my ice cream - m&ms, sprinkles, caramel sauce, fudge, etc. And yes, there is a reason I run five days a week :)

While in Kyoto, we came across a cafe serving ice cream. Although the photos of the ice cream looked a little unique, I knew we had to try it. The cost was a little more than I wanted to pay for a bowl of ice cream but with my husband's encouragement, we grabbed a table.

I've mentioned before that I love green tea and so does my husband so of course we chose the green tea ice cream sundae.
I've had a lot of ice cream in my life but never have I had something quite like this. The scoops of green tea ice cream were accompanied by balls of mochi (pounded sweet rice), blocks of a sweet green substance, and azuki beans. I immediately nicknamed the sweet green substance as "green goo" but it was delicious green goo and I have a new love for azuki beans. (I've loved mochi since discovering it when we moved to Hawaii)
This sundae was void of the items I usually have on sundaes - fudge, candy, caramel sauce, etc - but this was the best sundae I have ever had. Maybe it was because it was so unique, maybe it was because we had just walked alongside a beautiful river next to cherry blossom trees, or maybe it was because it was just that good. Whatever the reason, it tops my list as sundae #1.

Anyone else had some interesting ice cream experiences?

Cakes for book club

I belong to a local book club and I'm pretty much known for two things: 1) Never reading the book 2) Always showing up with cake.

And it's not that I'm not a reader. I read all the time - at least a book a week, sometimes more. But sometimes the book they've chosen doesn't appeal to me or other times I already have a stack of books on my TBR (to be read) pile that the book club book doesn't make it to the top of the list by the time the club date rolls around.

I should mention that there have been a few times where I actually read the book, but more times than not, I haven't which always cracks up my friend Melanie.

But, back to #2, I always show up with cake.

If the book is something I can easily replicate, I do the cake in the theme of the book. If it's not, I show up with a delicious treat anyways.

Last night's book was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Yes, I had every intention of reading this book. Seriously. I really wanted to but I've been swamped the last few weeks and the only books I've had time for have been audio books so I could manage reading while doing the dishes, etc.

But true to form, I showed up with cake.
I hadn't done a carrot cake in a while so I made one but cream cheese frosting does not decorate well. It doesn't smooth out like the buttercream but it tastes soooo good! So although her back wasn't smooth, it worked out.

For the dragon, I rolled out fondant and decorated it with my food coloring pens and then cut around it. At first I was going to pipe it all onto the cake but as time ran short, I chose the fondant route and I was quite pleased!

Okay, the next book club isn't until August and I'm really going to try and read the book this time. But I can't make any promises...