one year

Steve, bless his heart, got his days mixed up and thought November 6 was a Saturday, meaning he accidentally arrived at an oil pipeline protest 24 hours early and made delightful anniversary plans for us for a day that was not our anniversary.

What it basically meant is that I got a multi-day anniversary extravaganza celebration weekend of delight :D And get ready, cause we did some serious, serious eating. In one weekend, we did a year’s worth of eating to celebrate a year’s worth of being together, essentially.

One of the fun things we did was the Appalachian Trail! Stove was very excited. (And, for the record, requested that I take this dorky picture)

We embarked at Sky Meadows, a park with great views that I’ve visited many times. It’s particularly dazzling this time of year with the foliage and whatnot.

Also, I knew for a fact there was an actively-fruit-producing apple tree adjacent to the parking lot, having scaled it and harvested some on a previous visit.

This time Steve did the honors.

Chomp chomp! This was a surprisingly sweet and delicious even late in the season. Yes, clearly it was a little cold.

 

Butt, warming me up quite nicely with some serious cardio, the first hour of the hike was almost entirely vertical, so I was quite happy when we took ourselves a break to refuel.

I’d packed sammiches.

TJ’s whole wheat flax tortillas; smear of fava bean dip; sprinkling of that awesome Arab cheese I was raving about; shredded carrot; arugula. Smashing.

I also had a few bites of buffalo jerky I’d picked up at the farmer’s market (chipotle flavor was better than teriyaki) and the roasted sweet potato (why not?) that Steve brought. He dominated those items, though :D

We ended up spending three and a half hours on the trail, reveling in the sunshine. Steve’d been excited to hike the Appalachian Trail because it’s generally nice for a Midwestern boy to experience actual changes in altitude and there’s just a whole cool mystique surrounding the Appalachian Trail.

It was beautiful up there, but with the signs that go, “West Virginia- take a left and walk for dozens of miles” (okay I’m paraphrasing) you really do kind of get the interstate feeling. A big, pedestrian highway on the mountaintops.

Anyway, we were deliciously tired upon the completion of our hike, and ready for serious eats.

Steve looked at me imploringly and said, “Can we go to the all you can eat Korean place?”

Ladies and gentleman, the delicious and troubling named Il Mee.

I had told Steve about it, he had salivated, I had wanted to save it for a day when I’d gotten a serious quantity of exercise.

Seriously, what ISN’T this place?

You arrive to a table with a grill on it, so you know there’s the traditional cooked-tableside Korean barbecue.

Sure enough, a wide variety of meats and seafood in various marinades.

But you look at the action-packed buffet through the pretty dark wood booths and realize… this will be so much more.

There are scads of covered hot dishes. If you are interested in sort of the food court experience, you can get every typical Asian thing- spring rolls, pork, noodles, and the like.

I am always drawn to the uniquely Korean selections like thin crepe-y pancakes made of seafood and/or kimchi

And the local specialty of Korean double fried chicken (!) and something I’ve only seen here- glazed Korean sweet potatoes, which are paler in color than American

Totally unique kinds of fish I’d never even heard of

     

And an absolutely epic display of kimchi and other pickled vegetables. By far the most unique and exotic part of this buffet.

 

But lest we forget…

Oh. My. God.

So. Much. Sushi.

All kinds of dazzling selections of sushi, with unique toppings (slivered almonds?!) and shapes (lookit the lovely cucumber rolls!)

Wash it all down with exotic beverages, sweet rice or cinnamon flavored. Some so-so fruit…

A baffling but entertaining soft serve machine!

Obviously, we were going to get our eat on.

Okay. So let’s suffice it to say that when I eat at an all you can eat buffet, I really eat  all I can eat.

This happens for several reasons

1. I want to get my money’s (or, after tense negotiations over the past several days, Steve’s money’s) worth
2. I am an indecisive Libra and want to try everything
3. How often does one get to eat enough sushi. Sushi is so expensive a la carte!
4. I was a genuinely starvin’ Marvin, having hiked for three and a half hours with a smallish lunch
and finally
5. I am addicted to food.

With that in mind, Plate #1, a mixed bag. Things I thought were old friends were less great on being reunited.

 

The mussels were fat and pretty good. The green beans were in an excessively thick and sweet sauce (they were at the bottom of a pan that was later refilled; perhaps party of the problem). The kimchi and oyster pancakes, usually one of my favorite Korean foods, were SO disappointing: bland and cornstarchy. Barely ate any. The glazed sweet potato slices (the mahagony colored cubes) were also something I had fondly, fondly remembered from my previous visit to the restaurant and were a whole lot of blah. The tempura was the saving grace of the plate. I mean, I only ate a bit, picking out the hot peppers. But dang, hot peppers in tempura batter? Count me in.

Next: sushi plate. Now we’re cookin’. Now we’re feeling good.

Everything on this plate? AWESOME.

You will never in a million years get me to describe every roll, but I will tell you that I basically tried one of everything- minus ones that included fake crab, since I don’t like it; and that the highlights included any of the ones that contained pickled veggies (the Korean trademark!)

^^and that shooter thing in the cup which tasted- I swear, fish, fish roe, pickled veggies, zippy sauce and all- like a taco.

Plate 3, slowing down but not daunted:

   

A few more nibbles of some of my favorites on the sushi; the green beans, which were better and fresher once the tray was refilled; a tempura shrimp; a mini-crab cake with a tangy and spicy soy-based sauce drizzled on it; a squid ring, a tofu strip, and in the center:

 

The most curious rice cake blob stewed with veggies. Totally great.

While you’re all judging me for the amount of food that was, let’s check in with the boy, shall we?

He also enjoyed healthy helpings of sushi and buffet items, but he experienced true joy right at our table, watching the barbecue happen.

Spicy marinated beef, pork, chicken and squid went onto the grill raw…

And came off it smelling amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing. And tasty, too :D I tried a bit of each thing (more than a bit of the very tasty beef and squid, which I greatly preferred to the fatty pork and dry chicken).

Vastly overestimating his need for condiments, Steve went a little nuts by the pickled vegetables.

Tried to help him finish them off—they were all super tasty. That stuff in the lower left hand corner seemed to be, to the best of my description… pickled omelet shreds? Like, someone had cooked a flat pancake, thin sliced it, and tossed it together with a spicy sauce. It was totally great!

Back to my consuming and consuming :D

I enjoyed cups of both of the drinks, cinnamon and rice. Both were quite sweet and quite tasty.

 

Then I thought I was nearly finished but I happened to pass by the hot pots that I thought merely contained steamed rice and observe someone helping himself to PUMPKIN SOUP!

So I went crazy on that.

Times two.

Tasted rice-y, somehow. Hmm. Oh and great, too, obviously. Love all pumpkin always forever the end.

And some mediocre fruit (ate only the soft white parts of the melon) and I thought that might be a sweet red bean rice creation but it was only a regular red bean (and slightly undercooked at that) rice creation so I tried a bite and headed off.

The evening concluded with a riotous impromptu 90s dance party (it all began when Steve burned me an anniversary CD featuring a 90s dance remix of Total Eclipse of the Heart, one of our karaoke signatures).

Okay, actual anniversary.

We swore to each other we wouldnt’ plan something fancy, as we both get a little neurotic when something becomes an Occasion and a Big Deal and there are all these high expectations and it gets a bit competitive and we liken it to an “affection arms race”.

So we kept it casual and just hung out at Steve’s.

But then I felt compelled to dress up cause my boyfriend so often sees me dressed like a bum. So then he felt compelled to look nice.

He also did a snazzy ‘round the back movement while setting the table.

On the menu Steve decided to cook one of his favorite things I’ve cooked for him (and everyone else on earth; it’s one of my favorite summer recipes): corn and basil cakes. Agh it’s so good.

Even in November. With frozen corn :(

A lot of it has to do with the fact that I use cooking spray… and Steve fries it in butter!

 

Quite beautifully golden, eh?

 

He also made some olive-oil heavy roasted asparagus that was marvy

And roasted sweet potatoes, an ingredient Steve didn’t know could come sans marshmallow topping til he met me.

 

Here’s to many more, Honey Badger.

sushi at steve’s

Some loyal readers may recall a bet exchanged between the boyfriend and I. A health bet, if you will. If he ran thirty miles (well. Ugh. That was the original deal) in a week (ugh, original deal), then he’d get a pound of homemade pasta, made by me.

It eventually involved 50 miles. In 60 hours. (His left knee has still not recovered).

But anyway, we made the pasta.

However, I also kept up my end of the bargain, giving up sweets for a week.

My reward? Homemade sushi!

Steve made me a TON! In a gorgeous variety of flavors and arrangements!

 

When I cook, as with most matters of my life, I make do with what I have. “Hm, don’t have any rice? Barley’s just as good. Oh crud, don’t have any tomato sauce? Sure, ketchup!”

Steve is different. Most of his cooking is in the typical male “I have mastered a dish and I am sticking to it”, and that dish for him is fried rice. It is always delicious, he mixes up the vegetable add-ins to provide a sufficient quantity of taste and nutrition variation. However, when he deviates from the norm and does a Cooking Project, he is going to commit to that Cooking Project. Commit BIG.

For making sushi, this meant several things.

1. A wooden bowl. Because apparently you cannot make proper sushi rice without a wooden bowl (…?!) He also, from previous experience, already had sushi mats. They are lovely.
2. Proper sushi rice. Which is short grain. (I did request/demand brown rice. He said the Asian woman at the Asian grocery store strongly advised against it)
3. Technique. This involved an internet tutorial on the proper way to cook a Japanese omelet type thing (the egg layer that goes in sushi… has a proper name which of course I, the lazy cook, have forgotten). His was perfectly shaped and flavor
4. Proper fish. On that note, I give you…

Ladies and gentlemen, an egg, cucumber, and UNAGI roll!

 

Love me some fresh water eel. And apparently they sell it at HMart, who knew?!

The roll also involved Sriracha mayo, mmm. (Mayo and I have such an odd relationship. But when it’s mixed with Sriracha and on a delicious sushi roll, I’m down.)

There was a variation that involved asparagus that was GRAND.

Let’s also just take a moment and admire the fact that Steve mastered the inside out sushi roll. I’ve kind of made sushi before, and it’s sort of intellectually possible to see how you can use seaweed as a wrapper for rice and filling (though, obviously, a bit tricky in practice.)

But inside out? Rice on the outside? That takes skill!

He in fact seemingly effortlessly alternated between outside out and inside out rolls. I couldn’t decide which I liked more!

And now for something a little more inauthentic and fun. How about a lovely SWEET POTATO ROLL?! Guys, I love sweet potatoes. I love sushi. THEY CAN BE AS ONE.

   

They involved a little cucumber for cultural variation and crunch.

And now, I would just like to point out that you have likely never had it, but dare I make a case for sweet potato and wasabi?! Seriously a great combination!

Wasabi was one of the myriad condiments offered to accompany my sushi.

 

Chili paste, soy sauce, Sriracha, teriyaki sauce, pickled ginger (!) (I love that stuff!), and wasabi.

I am a wasabi fiend, but Steve hates it. Good. More for me.

His chosen condiment, which I sampled and found quite tasty, was soy sauce mixed with the seed-in chili paste at the far left.

I began with a combo plate, if you will (I hate how when you order sushi you have to get all these different kinds of rolls. I enjoy being able to make a combination of all different kinds of flavors! Call it culinary ADHD if you’d like).

Sweet potato, inside out unagi-cucumber-egg-Sriracha mayo roll, inside out all of the aforementioned things plus asparagus roll (we’ll call that the deluxe roll!), and an outside out of the deluxe.

 

I must confess that I sometimes grow impatient with the rice. It also has a tendency to fall off the sushi roll, and since I’m usually working my greedy way to the fillings, I tend to just let it fall. And know that Steve will eat it.

But for the record, this was great sushi rice. Subtly flavored with vinegar and even a bit sweet from (Steve specifically chose this sushi rice recipe for its inclusion) honey. (Steve’s obsessed with honey).

I was having such a blissed out time eating sushi that I even had a California roll! 

I don’t typically care for California rolls cause I get kind of skeeved out by the fake crab. But eating it actually set me off on a bit of a nostalgia trip when I was just a kiddo trying sushi for the first time. And the avocado, from the extremely superior to the regular grocery store Latin grocery store (a must for really good produce, especially the kinds of foods you’d find in Latin countries), was perfect.

Also from the Latin grocery store, an oddly perfect conclusion to the meal:

 

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmango.

(No, I did not eat it with the wasabi. I do find it funny that it is in the background. Even for me, that combo is a little bizarre)

Another evening I found myself at Steve’s before he’d gotten home from work (I let myself in :D With my key :D).

And looked at his fridge and decided it was a biohazard and I never ever wanted to eat food that had been in it or put my beautiful meals in it. So I cleaned it.

He was dumbfounded with joy when he saw all that I’d done, so much so that he decided to take a picture.

(Suffice it to say that the bottom shelf did *not* used to be white. Yeurgh ew now I’m thinking about it)

My plan for the potluck that wasn’t was to recreate the WONDERFUL Israeli couscous salad we got at Lindeman’s on our trip to Spokane. I did pretty well!

Started with yummy whole wheat couscous:

 

Cooked up a cup of it with a handful of Craisins (to get them fat and rehydrated).

Then I used that same hot pan to heat up a bit of olive oil which I infused with curry powder (cooking the curry powder helps active the flavors, and because oil in a pan can get a lot hotter than water in a pan, it does a better job of activating those flavors. Just don’t burn it!)

Tossed the curry oil with some rice vinegar, green onion, and toasted almonds (I didn’t have slivered so I just toasted whole almonds and kind of cut them up).

Turned out quite yummy!

 

Steve had gone to this team-building-in-the-woods ropes course thing that day, which concluded with a trip to buy apple cider donuts. Obviously.

He made me eat one. Obviously.

Finally, this was ages ago but I just wanted to awe you all with the fact that I FRIED FOOD.

Well actually I baked it, too. It was in the interests of comparison.

Steve and I had bought yuca at the local heavenly, comprehensive Latin grocery market. I really really love fried yuca when you get it at the Peruvian chicken places that are more ubiquitous than McDonalds in the neighborhood in which I am lucky enough to live. However, I doubted my ability to recreate it in my home kitchen.

Still, at Steve’s we had the equipment for shallow, if not deep frying. I heated up a big heavy frying pan and put in an inch or so of peanut oil. Let it get good and hot.

Meanwhile I chopped up the yuca, which is such a stinkin’ pain.

The verdict?

Good lookin’ fried food!

 

The verdict? It was crispy and tasted a bit more neutral, like it could’ve been potato rather than yuca (if you’ve had yuca, you know its unique taste).

As for the other batch, I baked it in my usual style, with just a gentle drizzle of peanut oil in a hotel oven.

Obviously looked totally different:

 

And, shocker of shockers, I preferred the one that was more healthfully cooked! It was so rich and carby and squooshy in the middle :D

And Steve preferred the fried. Showing, once again, this man and I have some symbiosis going :D