Renata on Renatua

Okay, this one came together perfectly in the way that only great art, er, blog posts can. Dr. Terry gave me a bag of Renatua candies. My co-worker right next to me, coincidentally, is named Renata. I know, I know, this post is gonna write itself.

Right then, this candy is supposedly, get this, "Aloe Yogurt" flavored. Aloe yogurt.



Judging from the really quite elegant package, the aloe part is contained in the green center. I mean, I guess it is.



True to form, the candies are cutely individually wrapped. Weird Japanese Snack #14 looks on with jealousy.


Okay, time to taste these aloe yogurt flavored candies. Below, my co-taster and guest reviewer, Renata. She had a diet Coke chaser on hand just in case they, uh, sucked. Sorry, puns are my weakness.



"Right off the bat I'm getting some high, grassy notes with maybe a slight, almost chocolatey finish." I said.
"Really?"
"No, I'm just trying to sound like some pretentious sommelier."
"Oh, I get it.." She rolled the candy around in her mouth for a moment, "I'm getting hints of rhubarb and wood."
"Now it's like a chorus of small, citrus angels with lemon zest harps....."
"It's like a cloud of elusive nectars chasing one another..." Renata opined.
"Maybe they're trying to find the aloe goddess at the center of their world..."
"Seriously, it is sort of a melon flavor," said Renata suddenly taking a rather stern tone.
"Now it's like a young maiden reflected in a dapple of light by a Venetian canal..." I went on.
"No seriously, it's kind of melon or maybe pear."
"All right. Yeah, melon and pear. It's good." At that my candy broke through to the aloe center. Renata, having suffered years of malnutrition throughout her entire life, has very soft teeth and had to continue to teethe away on her candy while I was able to begin describing its' aloey core goodness.
"The center is really good. It's gummy and bright and, I wouldn't say aloe, more grapefruit maybe. With a bit of mint or something..."
At this point Renata caught back up.
"Yeah, citrusy definitely. It's very good."
"I agree."
Dr. Terry then entered and chimed in, "I didn't really like it that much. I liked the shell but the inside was too flowery. You know? Like when they put too much hops in beer." We use alcohol analogies a lot in our office.
"Too pefumey." I offered.
"Yes. The outer shell was perfect though. Did you say yogurt?"

Weird Japanese Snack #14 Gummy Fish

The English label on the back simply says sweet candy. I was really hoping this was going to have a gummy bear sort of flavor.



Bad photo.

Better photo.

Verdict? Not good. The consistency was like gummy bears but the flavor was pretty unappealing. It was almost a vanilla, marshmellow flavor. I checked the ingredients and milk is one of them. Yih. This is one fish I'm trowin' back!

Temari Cafe

Okay, I really have to learn. Went to Temari Cafe which is right down the street. I ordered a bowl of tuna donburi with avocado. It was awesome. So awesome that its' gravitational pull dragged me into it before I could take a picture. Below, pre-game beer and rice crackers.


They have a very clever gimmick of running authentic Japanese food themed shows to whet your appetite. A lot of them have Japanese celebrities on them. Naturally, I have no idea what they're saying but the food looks delicious.


The simple soy sauce dressing they make is amazing. I wonder if I could get the recipe.....


This place is a true izakaya; a small, casual watering hole that serves drinks and offers a simple menu. This place is popular with Japanese who live in the area. He makes all sorts of classic Japanese comfort foods like Wafu Hamburg Steak, curry, and omlettes (I know I spelled that wrong). There's the good luck kitty waving people into the restaurant. I bumped into Senator Inoue here once.

Noodles for Lunch

For lunch the other day I had one of my standard go-to bowls of cup noodles. Have no idea what the writing says.



Below the tempura cracker that adds a nice, mushy savory element. Naruto and Sakura look on with envy.


Stop staring! Itadakimasu!

Hinode Sushi

Went out for sushi with my pal Pete last week. Sadly, when our sushi arrived I neglected to take a picture. Below a lame shot of the restaurant.



Some shrimp and whitefish sushi for someone else.


Below, Pete! In the lower right of the photo you can see a corner of a piece of o-toro sushi. That night they had 0-toro sushi for $10 for two pieces and chu-toro for $6. We decided to compare. To be honest, they were both really luscious and rich and the extra $4 to upgrade to the o-toro was not necessary. They gave us a free appetizer of some seared salmon. It was awesome. No pic of course.



Below the whimsical desert the chef made for us from an orange.

Um, I stand corrected.....

Apparently, my review of Weird Japanese Snack #12 invoked the ire of my easily irritated friend Scot. Below, the email I received yesterday.

"Jeez, I just read your blog entry on the snack I brought you. Thanks for all those nice things you said about my trip! Fyi: The meeting was in Jakarta, not Bali, and that place is no picnic. Huge, crowded, polluted, 24 hour traffic, and periodic bombings so everything is behind security barriers and armed guards. It wasn't a boondogle conference. We sat with a dozen AID and Indonesian counterparts and hashed out 5-year work plans that we had spent the previous 8 months trying to negotiate on line. For once I would agree that the only way to get it done properly was face to face. Sound fun? The meeting went on for four days with a weekend in between. During that weekend I flew to Bali on my own expense. The lucky overnight layover was on the way in. I liked the mention of us Gaijin being shooed out of the first restaurant we tried, that's true. On the way back I had a ~7 hour layover at the airport and I spent 5 hours in a tiny hotel room. It was great. Just before my flight I went to a sushi bar, which to be honest was better than the two places I went to outside the airport. I got your snack just before catching the flight home. I thought for sure that you'd mention "Mr. Sparkle" from the Simpsons. The image on the package looks just like it and that's the whole reason I got it for you!



I think your blog is stupid
I still have another packet of those snacks. You want them?"

Ain't he a sweetie! Luvit. Thanks Scot. That was priceless. And yeah, I'll take those snacks. The neighbor's cat loves 'em.

He just sent this: "Man, that guy's an ass! One last caveat is that my comment on the tiny hotel room sounds like sarcasm but it really WAS great and part of the whole Japan experience. "

Weird Japanese, no, Taiwanese Snack #14 Lychee Gels!

Okay, robust bag of Fruit Gels from Taiwan. Thanks Doctor Terry.



There's about a dozen of these guys in the bag.


Lychees are these weird sort of, I dunno, fruit I guess, from Asia. They look sort of like a nut but that is just the outside. It's kind of like a paper/bark covering. Once you peel that off there is a sort of almost pear-like fruit wrapped around a pit. The flavor too is reminiscent of pear but there's a sweet grapey quality too. I like 'em. Below, the little tub.


Translucent gel. The tub has sort of a wobbly heart shape to it. Is that to give this snack an aura of vulnerability?


These taste exactly like a fresh lychee. I, as a rule, am not a big fan of jams, jellies, etc., so I can't see ever buying these again but, you know, not bad. Not bad at all.

Gyudon and Noritamago Furikake

Today is Presidents Day so I don't have to work. Dropped off the car to get the brakes fixed. I feel like a patient waiting for the doctor to come into the examination room and give me the results of my tests. I waited way too long with those things. Anyway, to take the edge off of my anxiety I made some gyudon (beef and onions on rice) with a side of seasoned rice. Below the gyudon.



This stuff is easy and tasty. You simply put it in a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes and your good. My rice cooker, Shingo, cooked the rice.



Below is the jar of Noritamago Furikake. I know enough Japanese to know that the first word is referring to the seaweed and egg bits. Have no idea about the second. This was recommended to me by my pal Tetsu at the Maruichi market.



As I understand it, you just sprinkle it on and mix it in.


The gyudon was great. Tetsu, what were you thinking? That noritamago stuff is horrible! I thought Scot's fish snacks had an unbearable fishy flavor. They can't hold a candle to this stuff. Honestly, it tastes like licking a dock that had dead fish on it for a week, then the seagulls came, then the cormorants. Gross. Gross like Napoleon Dynamite says it. Was this a joke Tetsu?

Weird Japanese Snack #13

The little English label on this just said "Japanese Cookie" and beneath that "Kuri Boro". I think they are supposed to resemble little acorns. I do know their main ingredient is white beans, whatever the hell those are.


They came in a little plastic tub.


Lousy close-up. My camera is terrible with anything closer than, say, 12 inches.


And a bite.


Verdict? Pretty good. The cookie is a little soft, something I am not usually a fan of but it works with these. The flavor is very mild and lightly sweet, almost a vanilla flavor. Will go very well with a cup of coffee. Cheers!

A Real Blizzard

Round 2! Alrighty, we had the biggest snowfall ever last weekend. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week we got another foot of snow and a proper blizzard, with wind gusts to 60 mph! My car is to the left of the light pole. Was getting cabin fever so went out yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours anyway. This was the gnarliest week of storms I have been in since I was a kid in upstate New York.



The view from the bar at the Marriott in White Flint. They were the only place open.



Below are a couple of shots from my living room window during what felt like the height of the storm.




A sense of humor is a must.

A Quick Snack

Most salmon is farm raised, which is not good. They frequently contain PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). My office does a lot of work on PCBs. I took organic chemistry recently, I am very proud to say that I can draw a PCB. At any rate, they're a carcinogen and you should avoid eating them. That being said, farmed salmon is soooooo delicious. My pal Tetsu at the Maruichi Market was selling little filets of salmon so I grabbed a pack. Made a great snack for some Wii bowling.




No wasabi, no rice, just a little soy sauce. Oishi!

Random

Iguana in Fort Lauderdale giving me the stink eye while I go for a run.



Man O' War jellyfish on the beach in Fort Lauderdale. I got a single strand of one of these babies across my leg years ago in Miami and it felt like a red hot piece of wire. These guys regularly send people to the hospital. Pretty color though.


Mynah birds begging at the Checkers hamburger joint. They're originally from south Asia. They're better talkers than gray parrots but since they're kind of dull looking not many people keep them as pets. My aunt Mickey had one when we were little kids. His name was Dagwood and he could talk, imitate sounds from around the house, whistle, etc. One day he got out of his cage and flew out an open window. Big mistake. They lived in Rhode Island.


Shot from the 8th floor of my office building. I used the tilt shift app on my iPhone and made it look like a toy. I swear, that's not a model.

Snow Storm

We had the fourth largest snowfall on record yesterday. Obligatory cliched photos of the snow below. The first is the walkway to my condo last night just after the snow stopped.



We got 30 inches. Um, that's about 75 centimeters.


I left my car in the parking lot down the hill. The plow guys skillfully plowed around it. When I was digging it out today a guy from the restaurant that it was parked in front of came out and took my picture with his cell phone. I turned around in time to see him lowering his phone and turning around and walking away. He looked annoyed...... Maybe they want that space clear for the hundreds of people who are going to show up for their Super Bowl party tonight (not).


So I was digging it out a little while ago and a guy who looked like Ben Vareen came running over to me and told me to just back it out. He lived in North Dakota for five years and prided himself on his snow skills. He was really friendly and insisted he was not going anywhere until I got that car out of that snow so I had to go back up to the condo and retrieve my key.


Sure enough, when I returned he was still there. He even helped me scrape my windows. I got the car out and shook his hand, "Thanks so much. I'm Kevin." He replied, "Penter". "Peter?" I said. "No, Peanut. When you say your prayers tonight say a prayer for Peanut! I'm your angel!" At that he got in his car and waved and drove off. I then hiked back up the hill and dug out my elderly neighbor lady's car.




There's a bushel basket under there......


It used to contain these......



View out the living room window, through the fence, down to the golf course.





Here's to the Blizzard of '10! (And yes, I know, a blizzard is about blowing snow not snow depth, it just sounds good).