Wednesday Japanese

Didn't have time for breakfast at home, packed leftovers from Wednesday night dinner (gnocchi in tomato sauce) and homemade white bread for lunch (via Joy of Cooking). Ate some of the bread with peanut butter and two bananas at my desk for breakfast instead. Work was quiet. Graduation day for the students- with the ceremony starting at 6pm.

Had a drink at Agary across the street with Wai Yee after work as she was over to do some banking at the HSBC branch. I tried the nashi (pear) infused "wine" while she had the matatabi infused "wine." The pear was alright but had that stale taste of being over-infused. The matatabi (text and pictures), a distant relative of the kiwi, was new to me and intensely medicinal, although not quite up to Unicum standards. This place has about 15 types of fruit liqueurs aging on the shelves, but I think I've tasted enough now. I'll be giving more though to the several plum wine recipes I had looked at which said to remove the fruit after one year of infusing.

I headed back home but had just fed Gin-chan when Minako's father showed up to deliver some of her mail and chat over green tea. After he left I made a meal of Japanese food:
miso soup from homemade dashi with naga negi and thinly sliced daikon, grilled hokke (a type of mackerel or greeling), plus a couple of Western dishes I made up on the spot. One was a sort of stew of potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, and mizuna flavored with dill weed, fresh dill, and cumin. I also randomly mixed up a side dish from cucumber, diced ginger, avocado, and sliced dried tomatoes. This seems like it would go well in maki-zushi. Bowls of 50/50 white and brown rice, a package of natto and a small plate of pickles from the pickle crock rounded out a satisfying dinner.