Ehoumaki (ehoumaki) is a food from Osaka, Japan. Personally I think of it as a big fat sushi roll, the kind you don’t cut. Around February 3rd you face the “eho” direction and eat a whole one, and you’ll have good luck next year. Of course “eho” means the direction of “eho”… basically the lucky direction. Which side is lucky I don’t know since I’m not Japanese, I’m just here for the ride.

Following up on last time, I made fish-fragrant puffy omelet a whole bunch of times. All of them failed. Not in the flavor department — the flavor was fine. The problem was that it wouldn’t puff. So I stopped forcing it and just made fish-fragrant scrambled eggs.

Salt and Pepper Fried Shiitake — I made this once before and it basically failed. Simple reason: the batter I mixed was way too thin. This time I learned my lesson.

Cooked again. This time it was egg curry. Calling it egg curry basically means there’s no meat in the curry — the eggs are standing in for it. Carrot, potato, onion, diced. Then get the green peas ready, the curry, and the eggs.

Back in the kitchen after a long break. Today’s project: fish-fragrant puffy omelet. The proper high-end version comes out fluffy and legit impressive. But the pantry’s limited… so a stripped-down version first. Eggs are the main event, fish-fragrant sauce is the supporting act. Let’s take them separately. Eggs first:

I actually thought about making sushi last week, but some bullshit paper thing dragged it out until now. So I finally had time to actually start making sushi… I’ve always figured sushi was pretty easy to make! And yeah, it’s actually stupidly easy!!

Fried udon — I made this once before a while back. This is round two. Last time had plenty of problems. First, it didn’t taste great: I used soy sauce instead of XO sauce. Second, way too oily and way too dark. Third, it took forever. So this time I learned from that: Kept the vegetable prep fast Synced the udon blanching with the stir-frying so everything moves together Bought XO sauce, went easy on the soy sauce, added the greens last. At least efficiency improved a lot — the whole thing took 15 minutes.

Lately I’ve been on a cooking kick, and my efficiency’s been creeping up, so I’ve started trying everything — the easy stuff and the not-so-easy stuff. This time it was udon. Flavor turned out fine in the end. The presentation… not so much. I used the pre-made udon from the supermarket. Obviously I can’t make the noodles myself — you can’t reinvent the wheel every day when you cook.

What we think of as curry today probably isn’t what it originally was — the Japanese just improved on it… or rather, completely changed it. Japanese curry is basically stew ladled over rice at this point. So I figured I’d give it a shot.

Haven’t cooked in a long time. It’s been a while. Recently I’ve started trying to handle the whole shopping-and-cooking routine. Picked up shrimp at the supermarket — actually a “green peas and shrimp” combo pack — and also grabbed okra, cherry tomatoes, cabbage, and cucumber. The last three are for a fruit salad. The weather was nice today, so I made the shrimp and the okra. The okra is dead simple: chop the garlic, drop it into medium-hot oil, stir it around, take it out. Make a dressing with light soy sauce and a spoonful of sugar. Blanch the okra in boiling water for 1 minute, and after taking it out you can run it under cold water to make it crisper — I didn’t, because I forgot. Then plate it and pour the dressing over. Done.