Izakaya Alice: Ramen

Last night, Izakaya Alice was in full swing!!

On the menu earlier was a Smoked Turkey, two Nappa Cabbage salads, and the wakame salad. We also served some Five-Grain rice. This was just an ordinary dinner menu, though. It wasn't Izakaya Alice...

...until 12 AM!

Izakaya Alice opened up shop as a Ramen Joint! I made some shoyu (soy sauce) ramen and shio (salt) ramen using the same recipe as before. Unfortunately, I only had lame-o dried ramen noodles, but the soup was creamy and rich without being oily. I was pretty happy with it!

We didn't close shop 'til close to 3 AM. Needless to say, my Sunday morning hiking plans were diverted, but I hadn't had that much fun in a LOOOOOOOOONG time! I laughed so much for the entire evening that my face muscled hurt all day today!


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By the way, I don't know if my wakame salad is the same wakame salad that Angeline asked for earlier, but mine is so super simple, I don't even know if it can be really called a recipe...

Wakame Salad:
1. Bring dried-wakame to life by soaking in water, ~5+ min.
2. Blanch pea sprouts and chill in ice water.
3. Slice cucumbers.
4. Arrange wakame, pea sprouts, and cucumbers in a nice glass bowl.
5. Mix ponzu with a touch of sesame oil and ginger; pour over salad.
6. Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds.
7. Add tomatoes if you like, and you're done!

Let me taste test this...

I know, I know - Just after I said that I was going to blog more, I disappeared...

I have a whole lot of things to write about, including all the recipes we have tested at Izakaya Alice, but I have to find a good spot to blog in my new house. I just don't have the right set-up yet, but I think the Papa Bear will finally finish cleaning the Hobby Room, where I put my big crafting table. Since this was the Low Priority Room, he put all his junk (ops, did I say 'junk'?) stuff that he hasn't touched in 4+ yrs that he insists on carrying from house-to-house-to-house for three moves. Once that junk clears, I am setting up my Digital Darkroom there and voila! Back to blogging, I promise!

I saw this in the news today and I just had to say it:

Let me eat this Octosquid and I will tell you whether it is more Octopus or more Squid. I prefer it served as sashimi, but I will take it as a nigiri. If you want to make it really challenging, you can stew it.

I can totally see this as the next food trend in Japan: mystery creatures from the deep sea. Ha!