A day of food

I woke up today knowing exactly what I wanted to eat. I even had the meats I was going to use all defrosted ahead of time so I could make what I wanted today. As it was a Sunday and I was able to sleep in as much as I wanted, I knew I wanted some lazy and easy in the morning. Weekend laziness screams to me congee so I made myself a thousand year old egg and pork congee. The problem with congee is that it takes a while to cook so when you're hungry I like usually am after waking up then you can either bear with it or do as I did -- make a small snack to tie you until your meal finishes cooking. And since I couldn't stop thinking about those heavenly crispy delights from yesterday, I made myself some more of those cream corn croquettes. This time I deep fried them in a pot rather than pan frying them and I've got say, deep frying really does make a difference in overall appearance. I was able to get them perfectly golden brown, possibly a bit too brown but they tasted as heavenly and delicious as they did yesterday. Even if they were a bit expensive ($3.99 a package), I really, really do want more of them! They make awesome snacks and they don't take long to cook at all which is absolutely fabulous.

The thousand year old egg and pork congee was fine but I made the mistake of not seasoning the meat before I added them into the pot... I typically hit them with a bit of salt, ground white pepper, sugar and oil beforehand to give them a bit of a kick so they wouldn't be tasteless when I bite into them but I was feeling lazy and didn't want to bother this time. So I skipped that step. That was a bad idea. Not only was the pork tasteless, I also added them a bit too early and they ended up being all tough and dried out. :( Still, it was palatable so at least there's that, right? It made for an okay lunch but overall, I think I preferred the croquettes.

And then tonight I made the okonomiyaki as I had planned to yesterday. I think I might have overdone it with the okonomiyaki sauce a bit but I absolutely adore the stuff so I didn't mind. And the mayonnaise is just awesome. Japanese mayo is just so good. I can almost see why some people would consider it a junk food. I also added some aonori and you all can see the katsuoboshi. God, it was sooo good! I wasn't sure if I would be able to pull it off successfully since it had been some months since I last made it but it turned out really well. I didn't burn it or set off the smoke alarm at all, the latter of which is totally a miracle in itself.

I made mine with beef since I'm not all too fond of pork or shrimp and I really didn't have squid on hand. Besides, it's supposed to be made with whatever you like and I like beef so a beef okonomiyaki. I can't get it up to Otafuku's standards but it's definitely not bad if I do say so myself. And since I have plenty more of my okonomiyaki ingredients having stocked up on them yesterday, I will be eating a lot of more them I think.

I really am starting to really like cooking. ^^

And now I'm off to do my Japanese reading for tomorrow. Oh joy, Japanese again. For some reason, I almost feel like the more I study Japanese, the more I come to hate it. Or maybe it's just Soseki that I hate because reading his stories and not being understand them really doesn't make me feel all that great. Tonight I'm reading the seventh dream from his 夢十夜 and hopefully it'll be understandable and not weird. Hopefully. I'm not feeling all to hopeful though. After reading his other stories, none of them have been normal at all so the chance that this one will be? Not very likely. Oh well, the sooner I get through this, the sooner I can go back to Before They Are Hanged, a much more enjoyable read in my opinion.