Yuki Sushi after Tuesday Golf

I am playing in a ladies' league on tuesdays thanks to a few co-workers who invited me, and after one round we all planned to go to Yuki Sushi in Santa Clara. I had heard so many great things about it, that I was excited to try it! By the way, the league is super fun and the ladies are fabulous!

They started us all off with little complementary soba noodle appetizers which was a very nice touch. I then got the nigiri sushi dinner combo which included 7 nigiri and a tekka maki. I must say that their fish was fresh, delicious, and everything else there looked fantastic also. My special favorites were the hamachi, salmon, and maguro. One of the girls let me have a california roll and that was good too although I guess you can't go too wrong there :) Also to note, their edamame pods were huge, served warm with a bit of salt, and not over cooked to mush- great to keep us waiting for the rest of the food. Everything that came out of the kitchen looked fantastic and I can not wait to go back and try more!

Dining Club is Back!! Sumiya!

For this month I had the ambition to bring the dining club back! I missed my lovely old roomies and I love going to new food places so this was a good excuse. Plus, maybe now I'll update my blog AT LEAST once a month! This time I chose to go to Sumiya in Sumiya, which is known for its yakitori style japanese food... they even give you a big bowl of cabbage with ponzu sauce to start off so you can eat veggies with the rest of your meal!

We ordered a number of things- the second set menu with tori soup (translated bird or chicken soup) which had chicken meatballs, kalbi don, 2 tsukune (chicken meatball) skewers, 2 negima (green onion and chicken) skewers, and 2 butabara (pork belly) skewers. We also ordered a gyutan (beef tongue) skewer, a tri-seaweed salad with yuzu miso dressing, a yakitori don, and a peach and oolong tea panna cotta to round out our meal.

I liked the soup, which I loved that we were all comfortable sharing a few sips out of the bowl haha, since it had depth of flavor and the meatballs were melt in your mouth delicious. I also liked the negima skewers which were simple but the meat was nice and tender. The pork belly was a bit on the fatty and salty side, but still good for a small piece. The seaweed salad and the dressing was delicious- perfect to offset some of the fatty items! *Sorry about the lack of pictures- I was eager to eat and they turned out blurry... maybe I need to upgrade to an iPhone 4 :P

Unfortunately, I thought I was going to love the kalbi don and gyutan, but both were a bit disappointing. The kalbi was nothing like what korean kalbi is... it actually tasted more like liver that was marinated which was quite odd. The gyutan was not the thin, chewy, grilled deliciousness I've had elsewhere, but small ball- like pieces that were chewier and not as flavorful as others I've had. I thought the donburis (rice bowls) were a bit disappointing due to being on the bland side. They looked great with the half cooked egg to mix, but there just wasn't that much taste... maybe the yakitori sauce on there didn't have that much flavor... and finally the panna cotta- that to be honest was something I would recommend highly against. It was too rich to be a panna cotta with overpowering tea taste that did not mesh well. It was not light and gelatine-y but much more like a heavy custard or cream dish that was not very sweet or well flavored. It was a disappointing end to the meal, but I did get frozen yogurt at Yumi Yogurt right close by to make up for it!

Wow it's been a while

I knew that I had put off blogging even though I took food pictures everywhere... but I just now figured out it's been 2 months! I need to get back on the ball!
I'm thinking about starting another food project, maybe a bento project to see if that's something that I could do someday... I'll have to give it some thought but it's always nice to have a goal or project to keep me motivated and steering me in a direction I want to head in!

On a different tangent, I am aiming to start up the dining club again so that the girls and I can check out a new place at least once a month and spend time together! Those I will force myself to blog about!

What happened in the last 2 months...
-Tonight we went to eat at Premier Pizza, at which I got a HUGE slice of creamy chicken pizza (recommended by the guy who looked like the store manager) and small salad. Jeremy got a pepperoni pizza slice and a BBQ chicken. The creamy chicken was actually too creamy since I don't care that much for cream sauces- I prefer a lighter tomato, so I had a bit of mine and I had a bit of the BBQ chicken (quite good). The pizza is good- I'd go back!
- At the beginnning to mid May we went on a cruise to Alaska with some friends on the Norwegian Pearl. Overall my opinion is that the food quality was better than Carnival, but variety day to day in the buffet was subpar. Also, no 24 hour pizza (their pizza was mehhhh) or soft serve??
-Right after the cruise, I went to Austin for work. We had some good margaritas and queso at Guero's, good ribs and bread at County Line, and some good Salt Lick brisket at the airport. I will say though that I was quite meat, tex mex, and BBQed out when I got back!

I think those are the highlights from the last month... I promise to be better about this! It's like following my life since my life revolves around food!