Saturday, March 15, 2003

 

Last Night (Saturday) we finally used our charcoal BBQ for the first time and we made simple, classic burgers (without fried eggs, something you find irritatingly often on menus here) with fries, but we were not too impressed, mainly because the beef lacked beef flavor. But it sure was fun and reminded us of our NYC grill-outs, though the temperature at that time was still pretty high, which made the whole thing a pretty hot affair.



Other things on saturday: Visiting a "gym" in our neighborhood! .. since it seems we are adding pounds (and the heat and the dogs outside really discourage running) we looked around if there is anything with treadmills in a nice air conditioned environment with machines that tell you how much calories you burnt while you are watching several TV stations at once ... well .. the place we found has something like that ... 3 bikes, 3 steppers, none of them with any electrical attachment, one treadmill, which you are not supposed to step on without "assistance by a trainer", no AC and no TV ... but 2 squash courts, lots of free weight stations and a membership rate you will laugh at if you have ever been member at a sports club in NYC.

A different highlight was going to a supermarket we don't go to often (since further away): MH Superfresh. They have pretty much the same stuff as all other MH's, but it is nice for a change. It is a bit bigger than MH Premium (the closest to us) but then again, no AC, you find chocolate in its own glass fridge.



Friday night we went to Daikoku again, seems that turns into a weekly "need to sooth my craving for japanese food" thing. We had Ginger Pork, Filet Steak and some sushi before that.

Lunch on friday was at "the edge" with Jonathan, who was excited about going to toberua with wife and kids. Ritsu and I shared the faux-turkish "Donna Kebab" which was again very nice.

#posted by Peter 12:57 PM

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Wednesday, March 12, 2003

 
Once again, sorry for the lack of updates, but I have been quite busy (yes,again) (last 2 days cleaning and gardening and finishing up that website) .. and on top of it, the online connection (please all sing along, you know the words) is getting even WORSE ... (in fact, i just got kicked again after 2 minutes, not enough time to download the 11 emails that were waiting for me. And it only took me half an hour of trying to get those 2 minutes). It is very possible that this is a bug in the phoneline, so I will have to drag those Telecom people out here ...

On a related, but more positive note, the island's one and only ISP is coming down with the pricing. Not much (20% so now it is 40USD for 40 hours a month instead of 50USD) but it is a good start. Still hoping for some "unlimited for night owls" plan ...

Soon again more, everything else is fine, it seems the latest hurricane Eseta is passing us by 500 km, but we had lots of rain the last 2 days and today it is very windy.



#posted by Peter 9:08 PM

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Tuesday, March 11, 2003

 
Cute cat pic of the week





#posted by Peter 5:16 PM

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Monday, March 10, 2003

 
Late Weekend Summary:

Sorry folks that there has been no update yet .. but I was pretty busy over the weekend, doing some website design and trying to upload stuff, which mainly had to happen during the very early sunday morning hours, which in effect made me take a morning nap on sunday. We then did some supermarket shopping and other typical weekend things: laundry, cooking, eating, playing with the cat, reading and such.

On Saturday we went to Daikoku (again) and had all things we had not tried before ... they had sea urchin sushi !!! Having something else then tuna or snapper on your rice is rare, so when we saw that on the specials board, we went right for it (and now I think we should have ordered more) .. then we had the fillet teppanyaki, which was very very yummy .. and then we tried the seafood combination, which is shrimp, fish of the day, a lobster tail and usually 2 oysters, but we substituted them with squid, since Ritsu is allergic to Oysters ... turns out it was a wise decision, the squid was actually one of the highlights ... the shrimp came in their very greasy white sauce, gladly only 2 of them, in that little amount it is actually nice .. the fish was ok, the squid was yummy .. and the lobster tail was the disappointment of the evening, while it looked very nice, and was not bad, it just had no lobster flavor to it. One thing I also noticed is that everything gets the same "butter with soy sauce" treatment .... works great with meat, kills any subtle flavor on seafood ...

Sunday night, still on a seafood crave, I made 2 different kind of shrimp for us: steamed with odl bay spice, and sauteed with garlic ... both turned out yummy and the frozen shrimps from thailand were good, though their consistency was weird .. too soft ... nothing really to bite.

Monday (yeah, I know, not weekend) I made us japanese yakitori (stuff on skewers) as interpreted by a gaijin ... fairly easy to make, and a unique flavor ... I made basically 2 different kinds of meatballs, which then where quickly fried, then drenched in a sauce, but on skewers and grilled on our neat little george foreman grill. Wanna make it at home (Berna ? )

Pork: about 250 gr. of minced pork, mixed with crushed garlic and ginger .. about 3 teaspoons of sugar, an egg and if the mix seems to liquid, add breadcrumbs.

Chicken: 250 gr minced chicken, again with the garlic / ginger treatment, but no sugar, instead some finely chopped spring onions. (makes it later easier to see whaich is what :)

form little balls, I got 25 out of each mix, and fry them seperatly, let cool a bit.

Sauce: In a small pot mix cooking sake (or cheap sake from the liqour store) with sugar ... once disolved add soysauce .. I think all is in equal parts .. but be careful with the soy sauce .. rather add some later ... let simmer and hoepfully at some point you have a slightly viscose mix ...

Put the meatballs on skewers, and brush generously with the sauce, keep the rest of the sauce for later ...

Fire up your bbq or oven taster of george foreman's lean-mean-fatkilling-grilling machine and bbq the meatsicles ... chop some more spring onions into the sauce, drizzle over the finished skewers and enjoy.

So much from chef Peter (personally: I liked the pork ones better) . Another hurricane may be heading our way, so I keep getting ready for this :)

#posted by Peter 1:40 PM

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