Japan

If you join me here at artsdevivre regularly, you might have noticed two changes : 1) I’m really trying to post very consistently, and 2) I’m developing a bit of a schedule: Mondays you find food and drink ideas and inspiration, Tuesdays house and home, Wednesdays travel, Thursdays Francophilia (a personal favorite) and Fridays are aléatoire (random). Just thought I’d point that out in case you hadn’t noticed 🙂

So, in the spirit of foodie Mondays, I thought I’d tell you about some of our culinary adventures this past weekend. We celebrated D’s birthday Saturday evening with friends and Sunday evening with his parents.

Saturday, we went to Pabu, an amazing sushi restaurant that lives at the 4 Seasons in the Inner Harbor. (One of D’s great friends from high school is actually one of the sushi chefs there!). Check out some of our beautiful plates ~

This was called a “Happy spoon.” Not for sushi beginners, it included uni, an oyster, ikura (salmon roe) and creme fraîche. I didn’t try it but everyone that did raved.

I love the presentation and mixture of color we got on this platter. The salmon, the tuna, the mackerel, the himachi and the cuttle fish were all fresh and delicious!

Yesterday, D fried catfish and made his homemade “Asian barbecue sauce” (it’s a hoisin-based sauce laced with soy, the perfect mixture of salty and sweet), for our version of fish tacos. I didn’t get around to photographing the tacos because I was too busy eating them, but I loved these vegetarian left overs ~

The green cilantro, purple cabbage, yellow corn and black beans are so pretty all mixed together. And actually make a yummy day after salad!

Since D is a chocoholic, I decided to make him a classic French flourless chocolate cake. It is not light – the only ingredients are eggs, butter, semi-sweet chocolate and sugar – but it is rich and delicious. I chose to sprinkle it with powdered sugar and whipped cream was an option (of which all four of us chose to avail ourselves)! This was the first time I’ve made a flourless cake and I’m thinking it’ll become a go-to. You can find the recipe I used here.