What a cool idea!
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It’s really interesting reading your posts about food you missed while living in Japan. My husband worked on a NATO project for the last 12 years of his career and we took a site assignment for 2 years in the Netherlands. We had access to some wonderful food from different parts of Europe that are hard to find/very expensive here. And, there were things we really missed while we were there, but we weren’t there too long. We also came back to the US with tastebuds changed - not liking how much added salt and sugar/HFCS many products in the US have.
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Thank you. I’m thoroughly convinced that too many people in the US are addicted to sweetness…whether the source be sugar, HFCS or artificial sweetener. The first brand of pita bread I bought here was so sweet…pita bread doesn’t need to be sweet!
I drink flavored, unsweetened or unflavored seltzer here, but other than my coffee in the morning sweetened with a 1/2 grain of saccharin, I haven’t had anything sweet to drink since returning to the US on March 5th except “lite” lemonade at In-n-Burger once and 1 can of diet grapefruit soda. In Japan I drank cold barley tea or sparkling water. But the water in Las Vegas is so bad that even filtering it doesn’t make it drinkable. I do drink inexpensive purified water a few times a day, though.
Japanese food is unbelievably and unacceptably salty, though and they indeed are somewhat guilty of unnecessarily adding sweeteners to many processed foods and traditional recipes as well. Hidden artificial sweeteners are a BIG issue in Japan now…especially with “lite” beers and hard seltzer.
In Japan I missed good cheese which is IMHO reasonably priced here as well as a good selection of health(ier) breads. So far I don’t miss any Japanese foods, but I’m sure I will.
I haven’t been to The Netherlands, but have been to Belgium and loved everything I ate there. But for me, Portugal was the best place I visited in Europe. The food, the people, history were great.
I do hope I can visit The Netherlands one day, though!
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Tonight I made mustard-rubbed roasted salmon filets served over sauteed coriander asparagus, with pistachio pesto cavatelli with grape tomatoes and a minted, truffled pea puree (thanks @saregama). I had intended to make sugar snap peas as a side instead of the asparagus, but forgot. Tomorrow!
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It’s been a week.
There was wine poured AFTER the boyz were satiated with the can cat and some crunchies. Because lordy, if the Chubster Twins are not fed AS SOON AS I WALK IN THE DOOR, I will (1) be loudly reprimanded, and (2) they’ll expire right in front of me. 
An easy and familiar dinner: a nice-sized steak tip, seasoned with olive oil, s/p, and a garlic powder/herb mixture from McCormick, to which I added more dried/reconstituted orange peel. Pan-seared and finished in the oven to 135° to a perfect medium-rare.
Sides were half a baked potato with TPSTOB&SC, and steamed asparagus.
Wine. Nothing spectacular, but a perfect Friday night comfort food meal.
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Part Deux of the asparagus tart. Salad greens in vinaigrette.
I gotta say, for the effort (minimal) and the calories (mega), I’d rather have a pizza…
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Korean-inspired tacos with red cabbage slaw - boneless country-style pork ribs were cooked in a glaze made from gochujang, garlic, ginger, scallions, chicken broth and corn starch. Topped with red cabbage slaw with snow peas, scallion greens, canola oil, rice vinegar and sugar
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I enjoyed an excellent triple smash burger from Bloom in Verona, NJ. It contained caramelized miso onions, pickled jalapeño and cucumbers, and cheddar cheese sauce. I also enjoyed awesome crispy pork dumplings. The smash burgers are a new offering, and are available for takeout only at the Bloom Verona location and the Bloom Chicken Hackensack location.
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Made bolognese and besciamella for lasagna to be assembled tomorrow.
While the bolognese was doing its thing, I poached a chicken breast for chicken salad (to use up that allioli I made), Cantonese style.
Then I realized I forgot to buy bread when I stopped by the grocery store earlier 
so no chicken salad sandwich until I go back.
Pivoted to caramelized miso butter noodles using the fresh HK-style noodles I bought last week, with some white-cut chicken and blanched snow peas (not pictured).
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Nicely done!
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One of my gal pals had a birthday this week, and I’d promised to make a special meal to celebrate to which I invited another couple we’re both friendly with, as they’d just returned from their fall/winter sojourn in the city.
We started off with bubbly for the bday girl, French 75s / Calvados 75s for the rest of us. Our city-dwelling friends brought a gorgeous goat cheese & asparagus galette for our appetizer,
and I made seared scallops atop fettuccine. The sauce for the fettuccine started with crushed garlic sautéed in olive oil, toasted tomato paste, a splash of sherry, lobster BTB (a bit too much, I thought it was pretty salty overall 
), squeeze of lemon, fresh parsley, splash of heavy cream. Side was a big green salad with walnut vinaigrette, walnuts & flavor bomb tomatoes.
Once again I was reminded why I don’t run a kitchen or restaurant: trying to sear 20 scallops well while having to toss the pasta with the sauce & plating it all in an “appealing” way almost made me lose my GD mind 
Plating, shmating – everything was snarfed up (my PIC tossed the leftover salad WUTTTT), and we hung out until well after midnight. TJ’s macarons and lemon pizzelle were an ok dessert. Neither are my cuppa.
Poker with the gang tonight; we are not hosting 
Looking forward, it’s been a hot minute what with our travel and then my poor PIC’s cold…
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Hainanese chicken rice from Soya Kitchen on Baldwin in Toronto. First time to order it. Soya Kitchen on Baldwin St
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Haircut Day.
Which means Wegmans Day.
Pan-seared scallops with Cacio y Pepe and sautéed sugar snap peas with s/p and dried savory on the side.
Wine.
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Yummm… salad and mac & cheese.
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Somehow that reminds me of gcaggiano. I’m sure he’s just busy as usual.
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Good to know I’m not the only one who noticed his absence and misses him 
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