Sushi challenge preparation #2

Woo-hoo, three day weekend!  I had a good day at work, the weather is finally summer (seriously, 70° in June wasn't quite enough...85° is more like it!), and I have plans lined up for the long weekend.  I was in a good mood this afternoon, and I was ready to take on my next step of spicy sushi challenge preparation.

Back to Yagumo for a #7 and #8 roll.  Last time, I did a #5 and #7.

Pretty presentation again (shifted a little on the drive home), with nicely labeled #7 and #8

Close-up detail on the #7

My strategy is to devour the rolls as quickly as possible.  It's going to burn anyway, so why drag it out?  Both were gone in about 2 minutes...but the deadly burn lasted longer.  I downed a shot glass of half-and-half, which did very little.  Back to two shot glasses of coffee creamer, and a giant glass of water.

After ten minutes, my lips were still tingling and I still felt the heat, but it was tolerable.  Ten minutes after that, I was good...until about forty five minutes after eating, when I started to feel sick.  I think that's due to the spicy and coffee creamer combining in my stomach.  I might not "train" for this challenge anymore and just jump into it next time—I have a plan and a technique for the actual eating, and I'll just have to handle the afterburn consequences.

Dos chicas walk into un restaurante salvadoreño...

Yesterday at 7:30am, my roommate sent me a text to ask if I wanted to go to a Cuban restaurant for dinner. Let me repeat: she asked me about dinner at 7:30am. (Answer: YES.)  I was looking forward to it all day, even eating a small lunch to leave maximum hunger for the ropa vieja con arroz y frijoles I planned on ordering.

Flash forward to 7:00pm, and the restaurant we had in mind was unavailable.  Thanks to some quick-thinking (and a smartphone), we soon found ourselves en route to a Salvadoran restaurant within three miles of our original destination.

We entered through a little hidden back entrance, which we thought was incorrect, but turned out to the the only way in.  Immediately, we could tell this place was authentic.  We were possibly the only English-speakers in there.  Our waitress came over and asked, "Spanish?" ("No...poquito...") I spoke enough Spanish (I can speak food) and she spoke enough English for us to order, after I helped my roommate figure out what the (100% Spanish) menu offered.

Our entertainment for the evening

Right in the corner behind us, there was a mic/karaoke setup—apparently Friday nights are live music nights.  The table just to the left was full of guys drinking and having fun, and they'd sometimes come up and join their friend at the microphone, singing what seemed to be well-known Spanish songs.  It was all very lighthearted, and they'd get up and laugh and dance.  Super fun atmospheric addition to the little thatched huts over the tables.

I ordered five pupusas (a combination of revuelta and queso y loroco), while my roommate eventually decided on pollo asado con arroz.  Um, delicious.  The curtido and tomato sauce were also perfect.  I've attempted to make pupusas at home before, and I know I'm doing something wrong—mine are still a good meal, but I'm obviously not making them like this.

Right before we asked for our check, the singing guys' table sent our waitress over to offer to buy me a drink!  We were the table right in front of their corner, so of course they would have noticed us paying attention and applauding.  So much fun.

It was a small place, and you could tell that a lot of people in there were probably regulars.  Our waitress was super nice with our attempts at each other's languages (lots of "Good?  OK?" and "¡Sí, gracias!"), and I ended up tipping her really well.  Thanks, La Fonda de Don Cuper!  You are excellent.

Sushi challenge preparation

I have been watching a lot of Man v. Food on Netflix over the last week or two.  Usually I'll stream an episode or two while eating dinner/snack...and consequently eat way more than any one person should.  You'd think that a show featuring such gluttonous portions of food would maybe help you eat less, as some of the selections are quite ridiculous (twelve pounds of burger and fries? five and a half pounds of pizza? triple decker loaded sandwiches?)...but it all just looks so good.  All of the food on the show looks so delicious, and it makes me hungry.

Anyway, every episode concludes with a food challenge—eat this large portion in under an hour, eat this entire super deadly spicy meal, etc.  I need to do that.  A quick Google search led me to a list of a ton of challenges in Los Angeles.  I think a spicy challenge would be easier than a quantity-based challenge, and so I have chosen my first challenge: Yagumo's Number 10 Ninja Hand Roll Challenge.

Today I began "training" for my challenge. Their hand rolls can be made any level of spicy (1-10), and the menu recommends not ordering anything higher than a 5 if you haven't tried their spicy before.  I ordered a #5 and a #7 Ninja roll (and a #3 spicy tuna, and a tuna cut roll to round out my sushi feast).

Not the first time I've been given two pairs of chopsticks on the assumption that this quantity of food has to be for two people

I started with the #5 roll—not bad.  This could be my usual level for a good, solid "spicy." The heat did linger a bit, but I went right into the #7 next.  And...wow.  That's spicy.  I finished it easily, but the heat lingered even more than the previous roll.  I finished my glass of milk. went back to the kitchen for more, then resorted to a shot glass of coffee creamer, because nonfat milk wasn't cutting it.  However, after about six minutes, it was tolerable, and the pain was gone after twelve minutes.

I can do this.  Working my way to going in for the #10 challenge sometime this summer.  Next week: #7 and #8.

(Also, I think this qualifies as "sushi in the valley," as I picked in up in Van Nuys. Another "10 Things in L.A." completion!)

Wine tasting...at home

A couple weeks ago, there was an amazing sale on wine at the grocery store down the street.  Every wine was 30% off, plus an additional 10% off if you bought a mix-and-match case of any six bottles.  I took the opportunity to stock up on different brands and varieties, since I usually just get the same bottle of whatever's cheapest.

Well, I still went with whatever's cheapest.

Of the six bottles I selected, the most expensive was about $4. I don't know much about different wines, though, so I did choose different types.

The empty bottles so far...another full bottle and a quarter remain in the cabinet.

That evening, I sampled a glass of merlot and cabarnet sauvignon of the same brand (Quail Oak in the photo above)...and hardly noticed a difference. Maybe the merlot is a little sweeter, but I couldn't quite figure out why I liked the cabarnet better.  I just know that I did like it more.  (I am clearly not well-versed in wine vernacular or descriptions.)

My order of preference for the finished wines: Quail Oak cabarnet sauvignon, Redwood Creek pinot noir, Beringer California Collection cabarnet sauvignon, Quail Oak merlot.  I think. They still all taste very similar to me.

Not yet a wine connoisseur.