another dream realized

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finally spun a fireset on a beach in thailand

24 hours till departure time

Flying to thailand for steve and grace's wedding tomorrow. Still gotta pack

Iron Chef party

Finally had the iron chef party i've been trying to put together this saturday.
here's a link to my flickr set on it -> link to pics.
the main ingredient was mushrooms.
i came up with the following.
started with a deep fried potsticker/dumpling stuffed with shiitake/scallops/leeks and dressed with sesame/ginger/soy sauce.
for seconds, made a fresh basil pasta dough for ravioli, stuffed with portobello and japanese sweet potato and topped with tomato/cream/vodka sauce.
the main was porcini mushroom risotto topped with slices of roasted duck breast and drizzled with a balsamic/casbernet/fig reduction sauce.
amit was my right hand man through the day. felt so bad for the guy, i woke him up at 11 to help me out and he was still puking from the night before.
in the end it was pretty neck and neck, we won the night by only a 2 point spread.

With yellow cheeseballs

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Chef mika

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Handmade blue pasta with baby carrots and brown hot dogs.

Pot stickers

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first app from iron chef party

Nihon at 14th n folsom

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Makers n ginger

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at nihon on 14th and folsom

Converging

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I can always tell how close I am to travelling by the convergence of the following factors.

1) proximity to departure date

2) bareness of fridge/cupboard due to unwillingness to shop

3) unfathomable combination of staple ingredients.

During times like this I become 'the ghetto gourmet'

My alltime culinary low

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Open face fried spam sandwiches topped with rice, radish kimchee and wasabi seaweed seasoning

Happy new year

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