thirsty thirteen

Someone posted about okonomiyaki on insta... and then I needed it inside me.

Brought me way back to Hiroshima 2018 when Frank and I walked all around the city talking about affirmative action, relationships, etc and completely missed the museum. So before hopping on a train back to Osaka, we ended up stumbling into a tiny okonomiyaki shop that had like six stools set around the giant hibachi grill. And it was mesmerizing to watch the chef layer up six gigantic okonomiyakis at a time.
Picture courtesy of Frank, and it's even more beautiful than I remember:

Luckily I had almost everything I needed to satisfy myself because I'm fucking independent, and I don't need nobody else.

Eaten with a view while finally finishing Real Life.




But first, brekkers.
Yesterday's cake scraps in bed + rookie attempt at whimsical plating...

...while baby boule #2* was in the oven.


This one was much fatter, still wonderfully spongey, but less crusty.
He didn't hold up super well under greens dressing and more sardine roe, but that just meant I had to offer a bit more support. I love him just the same.


On to the main event.
Found materials:

-bonito flakes
-furikake
-mustard powder
-freeze dried garlic from the Civic Center farmer's market stand that has the most binge-able chile mango and green bean chips

-one Chinese sausage because it's the only pork item I have left
-quarter onion, sliced
-quarter cabbage, sliced
-one egg

-instant noodles from the time I made Chrissy Teigan's tom yum noodles

for the saucy stuff adapted from here:
-2T tomato paste + 1T white vinegar + 1T rice vinegar
-3T worchetershire sauce
-2T oyster sauce
-3T sugar

Methods:
-soak instant noods in room temp water until pliable enough to have your way with it
-bring all the saucy stuff to a boil, stir until thick, put aside in bowl and get ready to make a mess with it
-fry Chinese sausages until crisp, remove from pan
-Fry noods until bottoms are crispy, nestle into cute bowl
-generously sprinkle mustard powder, crushed freeze dried garlic, bonito, and furikake, then spread sausage over bed of noods like rose petals

-sautee onion and cabbage until softened and charred in all the right places, spread over noods
-fry egg, make sure yolk stays sexy
-meanwhile generously sprinkle more mustard, garlic, furikake, bonito over cabbage
-make a fucking mess with spoonfuls of okonomiyaki sauce all over all of it

-slide that fried egg right over top
-devour ravenously, moan between every bite

Just missing the kewpie mayo.

Closed the day with a couple glasses of this red wine + grand marnier + squirt concoction (we'll call it sparkling sangria) to unwind. Sipped with Joyce's friend's pretty ube and pistachio macaroons.


Well, apparently I'll be here until May 1. Better start making a well thought out grocery list now.

*recipe from here again
cut in half again

106g starter

400g AP

60g rye

115g wet oats from oat milk byproduct

305g water

-left to autolyse overnight

11g salt added in AM

-folded every 30min pretty much all day, shaped and proofed

-tucked into fridge overnight for more proofing

-baked the next morning in Dutch oven for 20min at 500F, 20min at 450F, then 15min uncovered