Saturday: Adventure!

Lunch today was at Kurukuru sushi, which I wasn't super happy with last time.  Today was better than that time, possibly because it wasn't as busy.  They still have the "you have to order all the good stuff, because the conveyor belt is full of crap" problem.

Well, that and shrimp tempura. Om nom nom.

Also whatever the fuck this thing is.  I know the picture's super blurry, so I'll describe it: There's a pile of fried rice (with tiny american flag), with a half hotdog octopus, a block of some other rice/grain something, and a block of lotus root (I think?), and a tiny bottle of milk in a plastic cup.

Here it goes again sixteen minutes later in an even blurrier picture.

Here's another problem of ordering from a menu at the conveyor belt sushi place: if you see something that looks good (that Jackson Pollack piece there.  I have no clue what it was, but it had some fish, seems to have been fried, and came dressed with spicy mayo and katsu sauce(?). It was yummy. Anyway...), that's invariably the moment that everything you've ordered shows up (the ahi and unagi).  These were very good, with the ahi cut super thick, and the unagi toasty warm.  Mmm.

I didn't take a picture of it, but I also ordered chicken karaage before calling it a meal.  Unfortunately I then ate it too fast, and ended up burning my tongue.  I was eating fast because it was getting close to the beginning of the movie that was the reason I was out and about today:

The reissue of Ghostbusters was this week, and I looked online earlier in the week to see where it was playing.  It seems to only be playing at the theater that's hard to park at, so instead I decided to check the listings at the theater in the mall by WF.  My actual though: "The Man Who Fell to Earth? I'm absolutely sure no one remade that. Is that a reissue too?"

Yes it is.  Given that most movies that are advertised now look like shit, I think it's probably a good idea to buy tickets when they just give up and re-release good movies from the past.  I've not seen it before, but it seemed like a good idea.  Pretty depressing story, but definitely worth seeing.  There were only about six people in the theater, and all of them were much older than me.

After the movie, it was time to get groceries.  I stopped by Barnes and Noble to see if I could find a second book to take with me on the flight this week.

Well, that's certainly too big to read on a plane. I guess I'll have to stick with only one book.

Today's dinner:

Pan roasted romaine salad with scallops in onion sauce.

The salad is pretty simple. Slice in half, wash, heat cast iron skillet to 10000 degrees, drizzle olive oil on the lettuce, roll it around to coat evenly-ish, add lots of pepper, put in the pan, listen to sizzle, roll it around a few times, remove and plate. Top with some sprouts you bought today because they looked cool, a chopped roma tomato, and some macadamia nuts (also looked cool).

The scallops weren't too hard either.  Add a gob of butter to a pan, add sliced maui onion, and let cook until they're soft.  Scoot them to one side and add the scallops.  Let them sear while you squirt some garlic paste (from the tube that never runs out) over the onions.  When the scallops look mostly finished (although I used what is apparently the main rule of seafood: "You're going to cook it too long, so it's done before you think it's done. Even when you think you're pulling it fast enough, it's probably still too long."), add vermouth to deglaze, and then another bit of butter because, hey, why not?  Pull scallops to plate, crank the heat and reduce the vermouth/butter/onion/garlic mixture to a glaze/sauce.  Pour over the top of the salad.

Also warm a chunk of bread in the oven, and then cram a bit of mushroom brie inside.

Slice the lettuce and scallops, and then take a picture that the camera decides has a different orientation than you are expecting.

The scallops were cooked just right, but didn't pick up much flavor from the sauce.  I kind of expected this, since they have really dense flesh.  Still, the sauce was also designed to be a dressing for the salad, and that worked pretty well.  The tomatoes had a good acidic balance to the fatty rich sauce.  The macadamia nuts added nothing, except deliciousness.

I think the plan for this week is going to be:

• Saturday: See above.
• Sunday: Something similar. I bought some shrimp, so I think the plan is to fry them, and have them in a salad form.
• Monday: Same as sunday (I got lots of shrimp).
• Tuesday: Something with chicken.  I bought a big breast, so I think I'm going to either split it, or cook something and save half for
• Wednesday: I did get prosciutto, so I could do a saltimbocca thing.  Maybe use the brie to make a sauce of some sort?  I don't know, I have some time to think it through.
• Thursday: Quiznos, because they have one in the airport.
• Friday: Austin. All of it. Or, pending me not finishing my "giant monster formula," something smaller than a city.