washoku day

it was a breezy, cool saturday morning. so chilly that i started off my day with my uggs on, quite a difference from the highs of 80F that we experienced last saturday at glenn's farewell luau.

my close friend and college roommate, winnie, was in town from phoenix so we had a nice brunch with a couple friends at upland, a starr restaurant showcasing the contemporary california cuisines of justin smilie, former chef at il buco alimentari. it's been quite a long time since we last saw each other, about 1.5 years, and there have been lots of changes since we last saw each other, so it was good to catch up. would be fun to end up in the same region of the US again one day in the future!

we met up with elyse & estella, who were hanging out at the union square farmer's market, and kevin who walked over from the apt, and strolled through the plants and flowers section together. estella was in a bright and cheery mood, and feeling very social, yet shy :) she showed us her favorite flower at the market - blue hydrangea - and kept her mom actively chasing after her throughout the park. she also made a wish with a penny at the fountain. yep, estella wished for cheese and her mom made her wish come true - GOUDA! it's been fun watching this little girl grow up the last 2.5 years so far.

in the afternoon, we watched a japanese food film at the cinema village, washoku, which was mildly entertaining and sadly a bit of a letdown. it touched on many areas of japanese washoku, which are japanese ingredients, preparation, and cuisine, but the documentary was a bit all over the place so left us wishing for more. there was an interesting bit on how washoku has been brought to the US, but it also felt a tad bit propoganda-ish for the ny mutual trading co, the largest importer of japanese goods into the US.

our saving grace was trying out ramen lab on the northern edge of chinatown, a ramen bar opened by the folks who brought us delicious ramen noodles which are used in almost every ramen shop in nyc, sun noodles. there are 10 seats available at ramen lab, and when i say seats, i actually mean, standing room. there are two ramens on the menu: i had the shoyu ramen with charsu and onsen tamago, and kevin had the xo vegetarian miso-based ramen with charsu and onsen tamago, and we shared an order of gyoza. the noodles were nice and chewy (QQ~!) and i really liked my shoyu ramen. it was flavorful, but not greasy or heavy feeling, and the gyoza was tasty as well. i think i still prefer my gyoza with vinegar though, versus the dipping sauce they provided. overall, an excellentexperience despite the 45 minute wait. 

i know, jen doesn't do lines but this was an exception :)