October 2005
Matsutake weekend
I had a lot of fun this weekend. On Friday I met my friends for dinner at my favorite local Japanese restaurant. It was crowded so we sat at a table instead of the bar. The food as always, was great. We had Ika Gyoza (squid pot-stickers) and Ankimo (steamed monkfish liver) as well as a ton of beer and Karatamba sake.
I went over to their place after and we drank some of the Shiso (beefsteak leaf) flavored Shochu. On Saturday we decided to make Matsutake Pizza. Matsutake (Pine Mushrooms) are prized for their rarity and rich flavor. They can not be cultivated, only picked wild but we have had a bumper crop this year, and they are much cheaper in the US than Japan. You can find them in gourmet grocery stores.
Fresh pizza dough (Trader Joe's!)
1 Lb. Matsutake mushrooms lightly peeled
1/2 Lb. low moisture Mozzarella cheese
1/4 Lb. grated Italian Parmesan cheese
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Roll out crust on aluminum foil by hand and cover surface with Olive oil. Cover surface with thinly sliced Matsutake mushroom's. Cover the mushrooms with Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Bake at 450F on pre heated pizza stone (ceramic tile) for 10-12 minutes.
We also had fresh Muscles steamed in garlic and wine, a nice cucumber salad and some great red wine. Afterwards we watched Battle Royal II the sequel to the rather infamous and nonsensical movie about High-school kids forced to battle to the death on a remote island.
On Sunday I went for a long walk to try and walk off all the cheese and mushrooms I ate the night before. The weather in the bay area has been incredible this year, global warming I'm afraid. I walked along the bay to the bookstore where I spied the wonderful complete Calvin & Hobbes collection. Unfortunately, I have a lot of Japanese studying to do, I will have to refrain from spending time on recreational reading.
Today on the way to work the salt ponds were so still and mirror smooth, the ducks and grebes were doing their best to be still lest they disturb the surface.
Posted by Bakafish at 2:22 PM | Comments (3)
Movable Type Update
I updated to Movable Type 3.2 today. Not any big differences that I can see, although it will allow me to customize more of the pages without having to hack the perl code underneath. I still have to move this all on to the big server (Nova) at a real collocation facility.
Posted by Bakafish at 9:32 PM | Comments (8)
