This here signals the end of H1's Birthday Month and the beginning of Or 2's.
September was a good month and we ended it by baking and decorating sugar cookies this past weekend!
It was our first attempt as H1 decided she needed to hone her decorating skills, or rather get some skills then hone them.
Boobey helped but geez is that kid strong! 'Slowly and carefully add the flour to the mixture,' we told him. What does he do? He takes two hands and tosses it all in the bowl at once. Luckily that did not spoil our recipe but it was rather funny.
Our cookies actually came out quite good and I'm not a fan of sugar cookies, really. They could have baked a little bit longer but we'll blame that on her tilted oven, the tilt not having anything to do with the baking part.
Notice how awesome snow covered pine tree, emo lumberjack, fish and flounder are?
I would however, thank you to not mind Fish's green buisness!
And of course, look at bad ass Flounder...
Scary! but Awesome! H1, I enjoy his crazy eye.
Things missed:
Random pictures taken in September at the Train Station
Random NYC shots (sad times that's no longer Lehman Bros.):
and Dexter in Midtown:
Currently listening to: "Gallop" by Pe'zmoku, the Bleach 16th ED Single.
Beetchie and I have been through a slew of dishes at one of our most frequented eateries. Some of the dishes have been excellent, some of them have been rather unpleasant tasting and some 'odd'.
Here's a quick recap for those who may not remember: Beetchie and I have downed frog, bull penis and my ultimate worst at the time - turkey testicles.
Notice I said, "at the time".
I have a new favourite to hate.
Before I continue, please bear in mind that Beetchie and I have never been so revolted by a dish that we could not finish it. In spite of her loathing of the bull penis' gelatinous texture, I ate it. In spite of my loathing of the turkey testicles popping in mouth, she had one extra to finish it off and in both instances we got our $6.00 worth of money in our stomachs.
The day has come, when Kenka has 1UP'd us. Twice.
If only it could be so simple as a little green mushroom that gives you extra life and not a poisonous cross bone purple mushroom that poisons you.
That is what we got last night, friends. A whole lot of cross bone purple mushrooms that poisoned us in the form of raw squid and julienne taro.
For. Shame.
"Notice how tiny the dish is?" said Beetchie, when our raw squid came to us.
"Yeah...", I replied.
The reason? It tastes of the smell of a fish that's been caught and gutted right on a pier. It was Briny, and when in the mouth initially, it just hit you. As Beetchie pointed out, chewing it just made it get tougher.
I kept eating it because I realized that I could cut the taste some by eating with some cabbage. Thank goodness for the Japanese and their obsession with cabbage as a garnish/vegetable side but alas, there's only so much anything can do to cut the taste of raw squid. Instead of feeling nauseous every time I put a piece in my mouth, I decided to stop after half of it was gone.
As a side note, I can taste the raw squid today if I think about it.
Next up were the croquettes. I don't know what the love is for some croquettes with the Japanese but it was a welcome dish. We got the creamy style.
We followed our delicious croquettes with a delicious side of beef intestines in a miso sauce. However, they were a bit too salty. They did however, work well with our salmon onigiri.
The salmon onigiri was a bit of a disaster because I don't think I will find one as good as the 3 for 150 yen we found on the streets of Ueno (the first neighbourhood we stayed at in Tokyo). It was disastrous because it was massive with not enough salmon and that was dry. Oh how I missed my fatty pork filling. ::tear::
Our fifth dish was the Hotate Butter. You can't really go wrong with scallops cooked in butter as we discovered years ago from this place but somehow it managed to be slightly off. For some reason they fancied up the scallops and decided they'd dabble in the arts of presentation. I miss the plain old plate. It just adds so much more backstreet shadiness/Yakuza to the mix when everything's kept simple.
Okay, so maybe I don't know what Yakuza behaviour is like (thank goodness) but I have experienced, and with great fondness, just sitting in a dinky hole in the wall place full of comfort, with a Hattori Hanzo of a chef and a few 'on their way to being drunk but harmless' Japanese buisnessmen. The food's great and simple because the experience is great yet simple.
And another thing before I carry on with the food misadventures - what the hell happened at Kenka?! The servers had all changed. The Chefs looked different to me as well and ::gasp!:: one of the servers was white! It's possible she was mixed but if that's the case then she really sucked up the white there. Beetchie missed the bitchy girl that hated on us every time we got there and I missed my guy who nodded and smiled at me like a smart-ass when I ordered the bull penis. Oh, and this one girl judged us when we couldn't finish the squid, "You don't like that?". You know what you, shut the fuck up! I'm sure she doesn't even like it. The ass.
Back to the food with the next dish being grilled fishies filled with roe. It tasted like grilled fish and that was that. There was nothing too spectacular about it other than the fact that the fish seemed to be talking to us.
We were not satisfied and opted to get two more items. We decided on fried oysters (which was rather disappointing - it too, tasted of ocean but not strong like the squid) and taro. Taro was probably the worst suggestion I could make (and Beetchie was distraught that she whole-heartily agreed) and this was the other dish to slay us and made us admit defeat.
If there's one Japanese word/dish I need to learn let it be this one, so I know to avoid it like the god damned Plague.
Of all the things, Yamaimo Senbongiri is by far the most embarrassing and vile thing we've ever eaten there. Who knew that a root vegetable could be evil! I've decided that I will only eat taro mashed, deep fried and stuffed with meat i.e. I will only eat it at dim sum.
The texture was slimy but to the point of it almost being as though it was cut up and then spat upon by a 3 people who had massive collections of spittle. Honestly, you'd think Beetchie would be okay with dish considering she drank the Water of Thousands of People's Spit last year in Tokyo. Heh, heh. Sorry B., I had to go there.
Here's some video to better demonstrate why:
Beetchie likened it to the taste of vomit. I likened it to nothing because I tried 2 pieces and have since repressed that memory.
Can you believe Beetchie actually kept eating it, first trying to give it a chance by suggesting maybe we didn't eat it right - proceeded to douse it in soy sauce and wasabi? That didn't help the situation either.
At least no one can say we're not fighters.
Ugh.
We left unhappily and with our little cups of sugar for the Cotton Candy Machine.
Even that turned out to be a failure.
Currently listening to: "Bullet in the Head" by Rage Against The Machine.
When we were in Chinatown last, we visited the Dragon Land bakery we often frequent when we're there and in it there's this tank - it's a rather not so giant tank with some rather giant fish in it. It's sort of cruel but I'm always fascinated by how many and what type of fish they're rockin'.
I remember one year they had tons of fish and within months, they were down to about 3. Well, they've been down to 3 for the past 2 years or so, I'd say - a pike looking thing, another one that isn't as interesting and this huge thing that mills around. I forget what sort of fish he is.
The other thing I loved about this store, other than the steamed plain vanilla cakes, coconut bubble tea and the custard buns with the crumblies that H1 despises, were the tables.
Cruel once more, the owners of the store decided to create tables out of turtle tanks. So you could eat your pork filled snack while looking down at a turtle. I'd be sad if some asshole tried to dangle pork over my head knowing fully well I would never be able to taste the goodness.
I suppose it was cruel to have huge turtles in a small tank that was completely sealed as well because they also disappeared a few months after their debut and I've never seen them since.
I meant to do this to show Chloe but next time I'll remember to take a picture of my favourite tank and a table that now houses some mossy rocks and stagnant water. The kind of water mosquitos could breed in.
Currently listening to: "Fancy Mel" by Junya Nakano, from the Dew Prism Soundtrack and "Turn The Tables" by Shiro Sagisu, from the Bleach: Memories of Nobody Soundtrack. That song is epic! After hearing it used in episode 163 during the Renji/Ishida exchange, I've been obsessed with it and crying that they've not yet released or announced the third series soundtrack. I've been fiending for that thing for close to a year now!
Let us have a moment of silence for the same asshole who killed countless fish, including some orange clouds, some guppies and cannabilized on his own kind like nobody's buisness.
His evilness continued well into his 8th year with The HOchieS because who could hate a fish that survived a bout of solitary confinement? Certainly not us.
Here's to you, BG.
Spring 2000 (who knows how long he was alive before then?) - 1/12/2008.
All the while we thought it was "garami" but his death has led us to discover that it's actually "gourami". No wonder he never responded to us and was so beetchie all the damned time.
Edit: Apparently I have to amend after receiving this comment from Bughie J., "Meat without feet is okay but everyone knows the best meat has feet." and the comment previously left by X.
While that's all well and good, and The HOchies appreciate your support of legged animals, I think we're missing the point some here.
The point being "meat without feet" is a gross misuse of the word "meat"!!!!!!
