Making myself hungry

My last post made me really nostalgic for more sushi, and I have a real big craving for an uni-ikura don. Uni and ikura on top of warm rice. You just add a little soy sauce over all of it and feast away. Probably one of the dishes that I have ever eaten in my entire life. Too bad it's impossible to get but in Hokkaido.

Sushi!

I love sushi, and have always loved sushi. However, a couple years ago, on a trip to Japan, I realized how much better real sushi from Japan actually is. I recently took these pictures of sushi on a trip to Hokkaido in Japan. This was just some sushi restaurant that we happened to walk by. However, it was amazing. I'm going through sushi withdrawal right now since it's basically impossible to get sushi of this calibre anywhere but in Japan.


This toro sashimi was so good. It basically melted in your mouth.

Sashimi on top of rice. I didn't have any of this but I really liked the way they plated the dish.


Nigiri sushi set that I ordered. Not quite sure what all the fish were, but they were all delicious!


Close up of my two favorite sushi's from the set I ordered, uni sushi on the left, which is sea urchin, and ikura on the right, salmon roe. I normally did not like ikura, because usually it tastes way too fishy for me. However, I became big big fan of the ikura I had in Hokkaido. They're like little balls of ocean goodness which pop in your mouth.


Finally, this is one sushi dish that you can only get on Hokkaido, even in Japan. It's an Uni Don, which is Uni on top of rice. It's very decadent but so so good. The flavors of the uni were so creamy and it worked perfectly with the warm rice underneath it. I had it multiple times on this trip and it never got old.

Delicious Indonesian Suckling Pig!

I just visited Indonesia, and I had the amazing opportunity to eat at one my favorite restaurants in the world. This place gained world wide notoriety after Anthony Bourdain visited it and heaped accolades on it on his food/travel show. This place is Ibu Oka's in Ubud, Bali. They only serve one dish there, but they do it damn well. For Rp 25,000 or Rp 35,000 (around US $2.50 and US $3.50) you can get a wonderful dish of babi guling (Indonesian suckling pig) with rice. It's amazing! Indonesian food is so complex, there are so many spices that they use which is found nowhere else in the world.


The pork was so soft and juicy that I could just shred it with my fork and spoon and the skin was so crispy that I would always here a crack as I bit on it. What pushed me over the top at this place was that they also used all parts of the pig, there was blood sausage and pork rind, as well. Oh, I forgot to mention that there were some delicious green beans that married with the pork very well. If you go to this place be sure to get there rather early. They only roast a certain number of pigs a day and if you arrive at 2pm or so, they will probably have run out by then. This is easily in my top three for pork dishes in the world. The others are a delicious pork chop from a restaurant/butcher called Perry's in Friendswood, Texas, and a really well done siu yuk, Cantonese roast pork.

First Post

I recently moved to Shanghai, China to learn how to speak Chinese. I'd like to use this blog to record the foods and sights that I discover as I go around on my travels here.