round

this week was a lot of... round food. unfortunately that's not the only round thing that's been spotted chez mina. but hey, it's winter; i need a layer of insulating fat! or at least that's what i'm telling myself to keep from caring about it. so far it's working. ^^


fiskefrikadeller! another one of those great danish cold lunch foods. basically a slightly flattened fishcake. there is something similar in korean cuisine that is usually seen in soup. sadly, this was store-bought because i was lazy. but still; yum!


mushrooms, red onions, and feta on some sort of flatbread that i drunkenly bought one night at a green grocer. i think it's lavash? anyway it was delicious!


and although i do love when the dane makes me bacony, creamy, mushroomy pasta on a snowy night, sometimes i feel like i need something that is not so full-fat or time-consuming. simple salads like raw beetroot and feta, for example. i am really digging that cheese lately. seemingly perfect on anything! and it's normally sold in squares instead of rounds. (;

vegan sushi

though i have eaten a lot of sushi over the years, i could never call myself a sushi connoisseur. there are so many choices that i have not been offered and probably won't ever be; at least not outside of japan. and we're not just talking about fish here. most people instantly think of fish when the word "sushi" comes up, but it is really all about the rice. but it certainly proves a challenge to prepare other ingredients that are as wonderful in taste, texture, and presentation as fish. especially in denmark, which may not offer all the 'exotic' vegetables that one may find in america or asia. which is part of the reason why i wanted to do a vegan sushi night for my vegetarian friend.


it is cheaper, better for the environment, and good for you to eat vegan sushi instead of the usual. but hey, who am i kidding? fish is amazing and is the biggest reason i am not a vegetarian. yes, i am a bad person. sorry, vegans. ):

that being said, this night was a lot of fun. my vegetarian friend likes to eat sushi once in a while but it is almost always rolls. not that i have anything against rolls (i believe they have their time and place...) but i wanted her to have a choice between maki and nigiri for once. also i think the latter looks much more beautiful. i have never attempted anything like this before, even though the dane and i have cut sashimi a dozen times at home. a lot of time and consideration had to be taken in preparing this menu but i think it just may have worked out. ^^


cucumber and daikon marinated in rice vinegar, steamed leek with sesame seeds, roasted red pepper, roasted beetroot, miso-marinated fried tofu with a garlic chip, roasted mushrooms, and of course avocado. the beetroot must have been my least favourite; mainly because of its crunchiness. i don't know about you, but i like eating softer things as nigiri. the winner in my mind was the mushrooms, but that's pretty biased since i am a mushroom fiend. after roasting, they were meaty and a little chewy, but not in a once-living-flesh kind of way. i'll definitely be making those mushrooms again. (:

leftovers? well i threw the veg into a flatbread and had myself a wrap for breakfast the next morning. with a generous swipe of chili paste in there, it hit the spot. P:

'spaghetti' from hell

a bit late, but i ate this for breakfast after the mexican dinner and beer and tequila and champagne... ugh. usually the morning after a night out, i like to have something really spicy to settle my stomach. x:

i wasn't really in the mood to make anything from scratch so i took this kimchi chigae out of the freezer and tossed it into a pot with some frozen noodles. it was already pretty substantial with black beans, a little brown rice, and tofu. but hey, it's all good stuff and definitely beats a typical greasy hangover cure. totally hit the spot! and it was spicy enough to make my nose run and my lips numb until lunchtime. (:

missing

the thing i miss most about california is not so much the low prices, nor the great variety of food, or even the mostly sunny weather. well, the weather part hasn't been looking too great these days. what i want here in denmark is my friends and family. the personal interaction is still happening, but nowhere near the level that i had with my loved ones back home. even my coworkers felt closer in california. here, there always seems to be some sort of barrier between me and most danes. maybe it has to do with cautiousness of cultures or just the fact that i am a relatively new person. but there are a few people here that make me feel a little more at home.


...and one of them happens to be a great cook! she graciously invited me and two other ex-classmates over to her apartment for dinner. and what a feast it was! i am not sure how she managed to make such a tender shredded pork dish with what is available here in denmark, even with her slew of ingredients brought from mexico and the states.


i dare to say the best part of the meal was fresh corn tortillas, made on her mother's old tortilla press. they were so delicious that i could have eaten them alone. but the other offerings were so good that i couldn't resist. ^^


rice, refried beans, salsa, chicken and bell peppers for fajita, potatoes... oh, what a night! it was nothing short of an honor to be eating such great food with awesome people. i wasn't expecting the night to go on for late, but we lost track of time and i ended up at home around 2am. yikes! sorry if i overstayed my welcome, claudia, but thanks for it! and of course thanks for being someone familiar to me in a (still) new place. (:

dumpling leftovers bento

if you've ever bought hot dog materials in an american supermarket, you might have noticed that buns and wieners always come in uneven numbers. well, not to say even versus odd, but you get something like 8 buns and 10 wieners. but it's been a very long while since i've even eaten a single hot dog so maybe things have changed for the better. anyway my point was that homemade dumplings are much like that. i've never seen just the right amount of filling made for the perfect number of wrappers. if you have extra wrappers, you can simply freeze them. but what do you do with leftover filling...?

freeze it?
hmm, might be too moist to become filling again. though i might try it sometime.

toss it?
do you think i'm made of money?!

...make it into a patty to put into your work lunch?
bingo.

to make a vegan filling like mine (tofu + shiitake + spring onions + mung bean sprouts) stick together as a patty, you'll either need bread crumbs, flour, or else you gotta un-vegan it. in my laziness, i just added an egg. it went well with my salad and i still felt somewhat virtuous. but maybe next time i'll just dunk it in panko and fry the hell out of it. (;