Japanese Dinner at Home

There are a lot of Japanese restaurants in Bangkok so whenever the craving hits me us, it's really easy to just eat out or pick up the phone, order Japanese and have it delivered at home.  The other night though, I was in a Martha Stewart mood so I cooked at home.

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Complete with Japanese-ish table setting.  My kitchen is totally not geared for a Japanese dinner hence, the mismatched plates.  Heehee!  Will make it prettier next time :)  I served real Japanese rice though!  I bought it from the grocery earlier that day.  It was my first time to cook gohan (Japanese rice) too.  It turned out ok.

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Yasai Itame (stir-fried vegetables) and Chicken Teriyaki.

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Here's how I did it:

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Yasai itame - I used carrots, cabbage, young corn and enoki mushrooms (instead of the usual bean sprouts).  It was my first time to cook with enoki mushrooms so I didn't know if I should blanch them or stir fry right away.  Just to be sure, I blanched them first for about 10 seconds.  I simply sauteed the veggies in canola oil with garlic and onions; seasoned with light soy sauce and drizzled a little sesame oil once cooked.  That's it.  Easy peasy.

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Chicken teriyaki - I kinda cheated with this because I used bottled sauce.  Heehee!  I used Kikkoman, though.  You can't go wrong with Kikkoman, right?  I just marinated boneless chicken thighs in Kikkoman Teriyaki sauce for at least an hour, grilled in my super oven until done, chopped into serving pieces and drizzled with a little more teriyaki sauce before serving.  That's it.  Simple as that!

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Japanese at home?  Pwede na!

Birthday Dinner at The Fort

Pat and I hosted a joint birthday dinner at Red Kimono. Belated for her and advanced for me :) Now, whenever my bestfriends and I get together, you know you are in for some serious, hardcore eating.
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aWe could not have picked a better place than a Japanese restaurant that had an all you can eat promo! Wait there's more: it's not the kind of buffet where you need to stand up and fall in line to get your food; you just order what you want and they will bring the food to your table. Walang istorbo, dere-derecho ang kain at chikahan. Can it get any better than that?! You can always count on Pat to pick the best places to eat in town.
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Before we started dinner, I was a bit worried because everyone said that they're not really hungry daw. Yung iba kasi galing pa sa ibang party, others came from work and had merienda just a couple of hours ago...I myself had just finished a small bag of pasencia (the small round cookies with a crispy white shell on top) while crawling through traffic from Mall of Asia to Makati. So I asked Pat if we should order ala carte instead. Baka kasi hindi masulit if we get buffet and everyone won't be eating much. To make the long story short, we ended up getting buffet (ofcourse!). Seems like I completely underestimated my friends' eating capacity. Shame on me! Haha!
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Kris, Fides, Katab, Kerwin, Pat and Abi.
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aWe decided to wait for the rest of the gang to arrive since hindi pa naman daw sila ganun kagutom. We'll see about that!n (Note: Fids + Katab, I tried to crop off as much braso as I can and this is as small as they can get na talaga. Heehee!)
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aAris and Hert. Special appearance yan ni Hert kasi he's usually absent when the group goes out.
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This is what we ate:
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aFried sushi. Super yummy!
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aGyoza. The best we've tried so far as a group.
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aKamameshi.
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aCalifornia Maki.
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aI don't remember what this is called, but I've been craving for this since we got back here. It's salmon sushi with cream cheese. It's super duper good! Gosh, I'm craving for it again as I'm typing this.
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aHinahanap-hanap ko talaga sya dito. I was in the mall the other day and I looked at a couple of Japanese restaurant menus for anything that's close to this salmon sushi. Pero wala. Pffft.
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aAnyway, back to my kwento: syempre may tempura din. We also had chicken teriyaki, agedashi tofu, yakitori, among others. I wasn't able to take photos na kasi I was too busy eating already. Heehee!
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aAris is a happy camper!
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aWhen we realized that it took a while before our orders arrived, the group decided to order nonstop kaya nonstop din ang dating ng pagkain. Para daw hindi mabitin. Haha! I like our waiter. Mabait sya.
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aHala, sige, kain!
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Food and katakawan aside, what I love most about our get-togethers is the non-stop tawanan.
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aAfter dinner, Abi whipped out her iPhone and we played Taboo. The losing team was supposed to eat all the leftovers. Heehee! I think we were the noisiest group in Red Kimono. Ang lalakas kasi tumawa ng mga kasama ko. Haha!
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aThe gang (left to right): Fides, Krisan, Aris, Hert, Katab, Pat, Abi, Chari, Ashley, Kerwin, Ria + Richard.
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After dinner, we went to Fez at Serendra for drinks.

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San Miguel line-up.
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aPat and I are the only non-drinkers in the group so I had a lychee shake while Pat ordered Sprite.
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aOur birthday cupcake. Peanut butter goodness with Reese's Pieces on top.
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aThe birthday girls.
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aWe are now officially 31. Ooops! Si Pat lang pala muna because my birthday is still a couple of days away. Heehee!
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As always, it was another great get-together with my AC friends. The food was really good, the dessert was excellent, and the company...the best as always!
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Oh, yeah...photos at Fez were taken by Kerwin and Ria. Thank you!