What a Hectic Week!

Wow, I have had a very very hectic week and even more hectic weekend. I barely even had any time to work on my college stuff that needed to be completed over spring break. My brother made a surprise visit home from Afghanistan on Friday and I've been trying to spend as much time with him as I can (I haven't seen him in more than half a year!). He's given me some very, very good ideas for how I can start my culinary career after I return from England and I'm so grateful for that. I also went to LCB for the St. Pattie's day demo on Saturday. It was pretty interesting but not as good as the last one I went to I believe - This one was so very crowded and less homely.

But anyways, I know it's been a week but here's the rest of what I was going to post about last week and everything that's happened since then! (You think I didn't use my time near the airport and LCB to its full advantage?)

So, last Sunday I went to the cities with my Father with the intention of going to lunch and then proceeding to the MPLS Art Institutes. Well, we got to the cities about an hour early so we had to find something to do. Then and idea popped into my head - We could go to United Noodles. We'd both heard about this store and I'd heard several good reviews on it so I had been wanting to check it out for some time. It's in a kind of tricky location that you wouldn't expect for a grocery store (in some kind of warehouse building) but from the moment I walked in the door, I knew I was in love. It is the most awesome store. They have rows upon rows of dry good of all types from all over Asia - Japan, China, Thailand and India (just to name a few). They have several varieties of specialty tea and seaweed that's difficult to find anywhere else and, of course, they have about four rows stocked full of my favorite guilty pleasures - Asian sweets. They also have quite a large freezer and produce section full of things like Japanese purple yams, fish balls, fresh noodles, fresh daifuku (mmm!) and even frozen durian. My god, I was in heaven. I walked out with at least six (yes six) bags or boxes of candy and various other dry good products and fresh products. This is definitely the best Asian food store I've seen in Minnesota from my experiences thus far. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for one.

So, now about the daifuku. They're basically little balls of sweet mochi (or rice flour dough) wrapped around some sort of filling (traditionally sweet red bean paste).

It's amazing. Just try it. Really. It has the most unusual texture if you're trying it for the first time, but they are ohhh so addictive. One of these days I'll dedicate a post specifically to these little spheres of goodness.

So at some point this week (exactly when it was escapes me it was such a busy week) I went to the restaurant Tanpopo Noodle Shop with a friend. It was located in a very inconveniant location in my opinion (I had to actually find paid parking for the first time since I started to restaurant hop in the cities) but the interior was very modern and the ambiance was quite nice. The waitresses were very friendly and it appeared that the owner was actually one of the chefs in the open air kitchen. He chatted with some of the regulars several times while he cooked and he seemed like a very nice guy.

Now for the food. We ordered the Agedashi Tofu as a starter and it was very good. The presentation of it was fabulous (just order it, the only was I can describe it is that the bonito flakes they place on top of the deep-fried tofu cubes floating in broth looked alive) and it tasted delicious. The cubes had none of the sweetness that I've tasted in Agedashi elsewhere but it's some of the best I've had nonetheless. We then ordered our main courses - I ordered the Mackeral (or Saba) Teishoku. All of our orders came in a very timely fashion and shortly after we had put our chopsticks down from the tofu, we had our main dishes in front of us. I'll say this first, the meal was huge. The beautiful presented whole Norwegian mackeral fillet came with rice, salad tsukemono (pickled veggies) and miso in somewhat of a bento style. I think this must have been one of the most beautifully presented meals I've seen thus far in a Japanese restaurant in the cities. And it wasn't only the presentation that was good. The fish was fantastic - It came with the skin intact and the flavor was amazing. A little bit salty but not overbearingly so. I felt like I was tasting the fish in its lovely, unadultered form. The rise was good and the sauce that the meal came with was not as good as Obento-Ya's but it wasn't really needed. The pickles and miso were pretty good but nothing spectacular. All in all, the fish and agedashi were really good and the sides were decent but not as good as I've had elsewhere. The tab ended up being pretty pricey too but I would say the combination of the presentation and taste alone would be worth it if you were taking a buisness parter or significant other out for dinner or a fancy lunch.

But anyways, I don't want to crowd this post too much so I'll be back sometime in the future to post about two more newfound treasures - a market called The Wedge and two of my favorite places in the cities: Origami and The Tea Garden.

Review of Obentoya. :D

I am exhausted.

So, so, very exhausted but you know what? I'm also incredibly content and happy. Which is a good thing. On Friday I had my first exam for European History (which I think I did ok on) and I've had a very stressful week due to family issues but my saving grace was that A: This was my last week before Spring Break and B: I had made plans to go to the cities on Saturday. So Saturday comes (finally, yay~) and I do indeed go to the cities but I ended up going alone because my partner ended up being busy.

I decided to go later in the morning so I could go to lunch first and then go to MPSL Institute of Arts content and on a full stomach. I had once again done my research on good restaurants in the cities and I found another well-priced Japanese restaurant I hadn't been to: Obentoya. Now this is a very unique restaurant (at least for this city). From what I saw on the website, I understood that they had a very large and decently priced bento menu and indeed they did but I'll get to that in a minute. For now, here's my review.

The restaurant itself is located in a part of town that isn't very appealing. It's squeezed in between a tanning salon and a few run-down looking groceries and coffee shops but in and of itself, the restaurant is very nice. The inside and outside of it have nice asthetic appeal and when you step in the door, it certainly has a nice vibe. I was greeted by two very nice waitresses who seemed rather unhassled. I took a seat at the sushi bar and because (as always *sigh*) I had done my research, I was pretty much so ready to order from the get-go.

Hot green tea (as always), and the Sake (salmon) Classic Bento. I did, however, upgrade my miso for an extra $1.50 to being Tonjiru Miso as it sounded quite good from the description. I kind of got the feeling that my hosts might have been slightly baffled by a petite-looking college girl coming in alone but I actually received my order very quickly. The tea, as always, was excellent (which is why I always order it when going to a Japanese restaurant) and the bento was presented quite prettily. I had previously asked the waitress if I could substitute something different for the Japanese potato salad (due to the fat content) and she gladly obliged by adding more salad. The meal itself was rather unextraordinary although it did have its highlights. The dressing they served with the salmon was delicious and the salmon was very nicely cooked. Very juicy and tasty. However, the portion was also very small and the salad's dressing wasn't the best but it was still a nice meal. I may revisit this restaurant at some point in the future but I'm far more eager to revisit Midori's again (probably sometime this week! :)).

I also enjoyed my time spent at the museum that day. Even though I spent about 45 minutes more there this time than last time, I found that I got through even less of the collection that last time. I've now come to the conclusion that I could spend days in that place.

I have far more to write than this (I'll give you a hint: United Noodles and Daifuku!) but I am falling asleep at my computer so I think I'll leave that until my next post. Until then, have fun everyone!