Friday morning: Coconut time

Another coincidence: coconut. In my last communication class on Friday, I invited students to have tea and some sweets in my office and coincidentally I had lots of coconut sweets from various countries there. We enjoyed food from the Vietnam, Singapore, the US and Brazil. That doesn't happen that often but for some reason different people gave me different souvenirs last week and four of them were made of coconut. I LOVE coconut, so it was a very pleasant time for me and a good opportunity to introduce coconut to students who are not used to the taste.

Eating well after days of eating soup only

This past weekend I ended up going to two of my favorites restaurants in the area for New Year greetings and also to try to eat well. It was the weekend of the "Center Nyushi" (entrance examinations) here and two stressful days for high school students.

Japanese fillet and sirloin on Saturday....

....and sushi with salt on Sunday.... Don't worry. I only ate four pieces.

Disgusting? Pretty?

This is the tiny octopus that was served at Ichiriki Saturday night. I was surprised at how it kind of stared at me so I decided to share this photo with you.

Back in Japan eating sushi!

Our flight was delayed, but we had a safe trip back. I went to one of my favorite sushi restaurants directly from the airport. I had dinner with my former boss and his wife. They now live in Barcelona and they are leaving Japan this morning. It was nice catching up with them over great food.

Leaving California

It's always very interesting for me to see the number of Japanese people who buy sushi at the airport before flying back to Japan. I am amazed at how they cannot wait 11 hours.... This time I found my favorite Haagen Dazs flavor at LAX: pineapple coconut. Guess who is holding the third waffle cone?

My favorite dessert

After the Homecoming event, we went to Mario's. They have the best dessert: ginger creme brulle. It's simply fantastic.

First "soba" of the year

Last night I had my first sushi of the year in Oami, and tonight I had my first "soba" at the local restaurant where I'm a regular customer. My favorite food there is their "tsukune" (photo). This place is really close to campus and if you haven't been there yet, I should say it's worth checking it out.

Riverside

Someone told me the other day that they have the impression I only write about food here in my blog.... Now that I think about it it seems like I do have lots of food photos. I guess you can tell a lot about a person based on what they eat, so I wonder what you can tell about me....

I am here in California now and I don't think I need to tell you that I have had artichoke twice already. I had a vegetable pizza at the Citrus Grill today--with lots of artichoke--but that was nothing compared to what I had at Sharon and John's place last night. They prepared a delicious artichoke dip, salmon, crab--nothing from the can! I have to share the photos with you.

June 10: Sushi night

We went out for sushi tonight and I ate more than I needed.... Ichiriki is one of my favorite restaurants in this area not only because of their great fresh fish but also because of the Sakamotos' おもてなし.