Last Week

So, last week didn't turn out at all as I expected (but does it ever?). It ended up being far more hectic than I had expected and I ended up having far more tests and papers due than I expected, which is really my fault for taking 18 credits but oh well. I enjoy my classes so it's worth it. :)

But because of how busy I was, I really didn't have much time to delve into the internet to find recipes or experiment on my own so I ended up having oatmeal and slightly modified soups for the rest of the week. I did make a discovery though - A regular 99 cent can of cambells tomato soup doesn't have to suck. I coursely chopping some carrots, onions and mushrooms, added some garli-gini and caramelized them on the bottom of my saucepan and created a nice base. I then added the soup and waited until it simmered. I'm sure that this combination alone would have tasted so much better than a regular can of soup but because at this point my tongue had swelled up and was hurting much worse than earlier, I had to blend it instead and it actually tasted pretty damn good.

This became one of my staples in that week along with the afore mentioned oatmeal and applesauce and by Saturday, thankfully, I had returned to eating real food. Which was just in time because on Saturday I actually convinced someone to go to the Art Institute Museum with me in the cities so I didn't feel like a loser going by myself which I'm sure will still become a common trend - I loved it there. It was an amazingly all encompassing place for being completely free and I only got through about half of one floor in the hour I had to spend there before lunch. Ah, food. That's another bonus of going there; It gives me a perfectly good excuse to be in one of the best places in MN to get awesome and cheap food. I have a feeling that this excursion to the cities will become a common weekend routine for me whether I go alone or not so I'll probably be posting a restaurant review on here at least once a week from this point onward.

On this particular Saturday, I was craving Asian food. Specifically, Japanese. Now, this is also a pretty common craving of mine (read my intro. post) so don't be surprised if more than half of the reviews I post are on Asian restaurants. After reading the current MPLS magazine, I found a section with 99 eats under $10 and nestled within that article was a dish from Midori's Floating Cafe. After researching this restaurant a bit on Friday night, (also common with me) I found that they are extremely well known for their wonderful vegan menu and vegetarian meals as well as creating food that actually tastes authentically Japanese. That made up my mind - I was going there. So after our hour at the museum, we navigated through the crowded streets of MPLS to find this little corner cafe nestled on a relatively busy intersection.

We appeared to be the first lunch guests of the restaurants and the atmosphere within the small restaurant was very welcoming and almost "tranquil" if that's what you want to call it. They had nice music (some sort of jazzy stuff) and we were immediately told to have a seat wherever we would like. We were given both the lunch and sushi menu by a very friendly waitress and then, after a short time scanning the menus (we both pretty much so knew what we wanted beforehand), we ordered. Contrary to other reviews I've read, we had rather speedy service. The salad that they serve before most of their lunch items wasn't all that fantastic - I would say that Origami's is much, much better. However, the shiso onigiri that I ordered to go along with the meal was absolutely amazing. It was slightly salty with the subtlest hint of mint and because we had gotten there so early, it was still warm. My main dish, the Kombu Soba, was decent but once again not anything special. Then after finishing our meal, I had to order dessert. I knew that I shouldn't (I'd already had a scone at the Museum's cafe earlier) but I had read that Midori's daifuku was incredible and, being a huge fan of daifuku, I had to give it a shot. Surely enough, it was just as good as I was expecting it to be. The soft slightly sweet mochi, and the azuki paste within it, were obviously home made and both tasted amazing. It was a fantastic closer to an equally fantastic day. All in all, I think I may be making return trips to Midori's in the future.