Cooking and Not Cooking

Reading: 一人ぶん料理 (Cooking for One)
Listening: ---

Ahh, another food post.

Sometime this week, I realized that with the large chunks of spare time I currently enjoy, I should take the opportunity to expand my cooking skills beyond the concoction of simple pastas and curry. Furthermore, I should enjoy the abundance of wonderful local ingredients available in the markets.

Attempt One:　豚汁 (Pork Soup)

I often buy tonjiru when Chris and I attend festivals or eat at Sukiya. I thought, "Why not cook a batch myself?" Tonjiru is a miso-based soup of thinly sliced pork and other goodies. I marinated the pork in sake and shoyu and filled my pot with tofu, potatoes, carrots, and thick cuts of green onions. Eat with hot rice and tsukemono.

Of course, despite my goal to cook more, I will still enjoy my restaurant eats. On Thursday afternoon, I checked out Ru Cafe for the second time. This small shop is easy to like simply because I follow the same aesthetics as the restauranteurs do--an affinity for warm, homey furnishings, clean white ceramic dishware, and delicate flowers. That and the food there is beautiful, like poetry you fall in love with. Just as good poets carefully arrange their words, good cooks deliberately blend exact flavors in the creation of works of art.

I ordered the lunch set, of salad, soup, and a main dish for 1000円. It's a bit pricey, but worth every bit. I added on a coffee and dessert for 550円 extra.

A cool salad of butter lettuce, daikon, cucumber, sweet tomato, tossed lightly in an eggy vinaigrette.

Cold cream of onion soup followed the salad. I'm don't particularly like cold soups, but given the hot weather, the small, chilled serving was perfect.

Tender hamburger topped with caramelized onions and poached egg. Coupled with assorted mushrooms. So good I almost ooh-ed aloud.

As if lunch couldn't get any better.

I closed my meal with a lusciously rich chocolate cake, atop of which fluttered fluffy whipped cream and a mint garnish. The chocolate matched well with the creamy vanilla ice cream (perched on a bed of slivered toasted almonds) and the sweet vanilla/passion berry sauce.

I left full, HAAAAPPY, and ready to return. Why cook for myself when places like Ru Cafe exist?