The Girl Who Ate Everything

Blogging about food and whatever since 2004.

Hiroko's Kitchen, excessive photos, comics, random stuff

Omu-Rice
rice bomb

Omurice is a beautiful thing. Like a sleeping puppy. A tiny puppy consisting only of an adomen. With delicate skin made of scrambled egg. And organs made of ketchup-coated rice.

...So actually, it's nothing like a puppy. For whatever reason I find the rice-filled omelette bomb especially cute. Maybe it's the happy yellow color? The bulbous shape? The abbreviated nature of its name? Puppiiiiesss?

Hiroko's Place
Hiroko's Place

Yesterday I went to Hiroko's Place with Stephanie, thus ending that not-so-fun "no tasty grains of rice shall be a part of my diet" thing. I'm still asthmatic, but I figured I could take the risk. This is living on the edge, Robyn-style. I am so very pathetic.

bookshelf corner
Japanese reading material, lonely corner

A bookshelf of Japanese magazines and manga adds to the homey feel of the surprisingly spacious cafe. That is, if your home is full of Japanese magazines and manga.

but I took a magazine anyway
the magazine is staring at me

Stephanie and I pretended we could read them (eh, we do have some elementary Japanese knowledge!) while waiting for the foods to appear. Magically. ...I mean, by way of a waitress. Japanese stuff is advanced, but not to the point of mastering teleportation. When they figure that out, they can take over the world.

salad
salad

Entrees come with a complimentary salad. It's a standard iceberg lettuce-tomato-cucumber combination topped with that Japanese dressing. Ye know. It's...um...brownish. Ginger-carrot? SHOULDN'T I KNOW THIS BY NOW? Yes.

Well. I ate it all, except for the tomato. In case you don't know, raw tomatoes are the only common food I can think of that I really don't like. It's a combination of the taste and the texture, which basically means the whole thing is flawed to me. My distate for raw, fairly unadorned tomatoes (cooked is fine and raw with enough other flavorings is also tolerable) goes back to childhood. Or birth. Or possible the womb. While a normal person might be drawn to the scent of an uber-ripe tomato, such a smell would probably make me gag.

Maybe I have a defective tomato-loving gene, if there is such a thing.

Napolitan Spaghetti
the hot dogs are fondling the spaghetti!

Stephanie bravely went for the Napolitan Spaghetti, "Japanese Wieners w/ Tomato Sauce" (with a scoop of potato salad on the side). Man, how could you not want it with description like that? My mouth, oh, how it waters. I think Stephanie was a little disappointed by the hot dog bits, but judging from the spotlessness of her plate when she decided to stop eating (because there wasn't anything else to eat), she must've enjoyed it.

You already know what I ate, but surely you want another photo. A closer photo. Stick you right in the belly of the omurice (before I stuck it in mine):

innards
tasty, tasty innards

Each plump little grain of rice was coated in ketchup. I've never had rice and ketchup before, but it works (if you like ketchup). While I wouldn't want it slathered on in a goopy fashion, the coating was just a tint of flavor. Ketchup-y flavor. And all this yummy ketchup-y flavor was encapsulated in a thin, delicate omelette...which was topped with more ketchup. Still, even that topping is restrained in the form of thin zig-zaggy lines, not plopped on like one might put on a burger from a stubborn bottle of Heinz bound by nature's rules for air pressure.

Service is nice and very relaxed. And by "relaxed" I mean..."slow". It wasn't such a bad thing as that gave me plenty of time to talk with Stephanie, but we were kind of confused as to what we were supposed to do in order to pay for our meal (which in preparation time wasn't slow). Stephanie, who was facing the counter, said that whenever she tried to get the waitress's attention, her action were timed just so that at the same moment the waitress would be looking away. Oops. My assumption is that you go up to the counter to pay...since that's what we did. It's a nice place to relax, so get cozy at one of their tables and prepared to be given plenty of time to digest. I wouldn't mind going back to try some dessert, which Stephanie and I skipped out on due to being carb-stuffed.

random photos

You like photos? Good. Here's some random photo-based commentary.

SANDWICH MODE?!
this special mode intrigues me

I spotted this bread machine while eating lunch at Life Thyme. "Special Sandwich Mode"? This baby was made just for me. Too bad it doesn't actually make sandwiches.

salad!
colorful

Life Thyme has some pretty salads, eh? Eat colorful food; you'll get different nutrients! (Figuring you're not eating Jell-O in five different colors. That might leave you overly chemical-ed.)

cocoabar Chip Shop
less healthy than salad

While walking around Park Slope on Thursday afternoon with John, we happened to pass by cocoa bar (which I had surprisingly never heard of!) and Chip Shop (which I have heard of and wanted to try since last year). Unfortunately, I didn't try either the chocolate or deep fried morsels of tasty death. Methinks a Park Slope fooding excursion of chocolate cake and fried fish is in my future.

chompy
chomp

There's proof that I'm eating! See! Chompy. While sitting in the Prospect Park Bandshell waiting for Yo La Tengo to music-ify some awesome undersea documentaries, I ate some leftover spirulina earth pie. This was one of my favorite desserts as a raw foodist, yet for whatever reason when I revisited it, it just didn't feel...right. If you can imagine a mixture of pulverized spirulina, almonds, dates, raisins, bee pollen, cinnamon, dried figs, brazil nuts, cashews, carob powder, and vanilla bean with a consistency nearly as dense as red bean paste then that's what it is. And if you can't (which is most likely), it's worth trying...er, or sharing with a few people. Obviously all that nut and dried fruit action results in something dense, sweet, and fatty. Is that a good combination? Hells yeah! But I ended up throwing out the last huge chunk that I couldn't fork my way through.

food trade
food trade, oh no

Eunice from Germany gave me this overloaded package of food in exchange for a Poofy pancake t-shirt! I felt like the luckiest girl in the world while unearthing all the snugly packed foreign foodstuffs from the recycled amazon.de box. (It doesn't take much to make me happy.) The ingredients are in German, thus I can't read them, thus I can't feel bad about potentially eating ingredients that I normally wouldn't want to eat, thus I can eat somewhat guilt-free! Mmm, ignorance is tasty.

Many thanks to Eunice! And Germany!

it googles itself

Hiroko's Place
75 Thompson St

cocoa bar
228 7th Ave, Brooklyn, NY

Chip Shop
383 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY

random stuff

Wulfmorgenthaler is awesome. SEE:

Breadophile?
Pigs are talented
I don't use knives; I just rip em with my bare hands
They're best when they're unborn!
If you're lucky, you'll get one that says, "One day I want to be digested by a human stomach."
I don't drink wine
Do they like acorns?
I do think that is a good reason
Think of the spoons; please chill your soup


Do you doggie-bag it? BRUNI INVESTIGATES!!! I don't recall every taking extra food home from sit-down restaurants while eating in NYC...really! One main reason is because I tend to eat everything (dammit) or eat so much that whatever's left over isn't worth packing up in a container that's probably 50 times larger than whatever morsel I decided to leave on my plate. Another reason is because even if there is something worth taking out, I probably won't want to shlep it around so that the next day I can feast on the same food I had the night before in a reheated, more oxidated "I sat in the fridge for many hours" form. Tasty, that is not.

However, in reference to Bruni's post, I've never eaten at a restaurant that served excessive petit fours. But even if I did, I bet I'd inhale em all right at the table. Isn't that the best part of the meal? Yeah, I thought so. Seriously, if I just ate the bread and desserts I would be a very happy customer. And very hated by the restaurant.

While growing up in NJ, my family almost always had to take something out. I could rarely finish portions served to me at our local Italian restaurants or places like The Outback. Japanese food was one exception, although we got Japanese take-out (run by a family friend) more than actually eating in Japanese sit-down restaurants (same with Chinese food, which we almost never ate in restaurants). I'm sure a large part of my childhood was sustained by the microwaved leftovers of Chinese and Japanese take-out food.

...I want a bag of petit fours. [writes that down on my birthday wishlist]


One of many favorite moments from The Simpsons (en espanol):

When I was little my brother and I, like many other impressionable youth, watched The Simpsons religiously. My dad disapproved highly of our retinas being glued to FOX on Sunday nights, thinking that the show would somehow rot our brains. Hey, we're doing alright!

Somewhat.


Maki is making me hungry for hot dogs, which never happens.


Ending thought: this entry was kinda weird and lengthy.

Comments

Marvo / July 15, 2006 6:10 PM

This post was like a seven course Chinese meal. It was long, delightful, and served on a rotating table. The Simpsons clip was like the dessert, making my tummy giggle with delight. This comment box was like the napkin I wipe my mouth with, except instead of wiping my food particles on it, I wiped this comment on to it. Yummy.

Claudia / July 15, 2006 6:23 PM

ahhhhhh omgg that looks sooo awesomeeee. it's like an eggy puffed cloud....yummmm. i'm glad pictures that salivate my tastebuds and such are backk..wheeee =) i hope you're feeling better and continue eating

Cathy / July 15, 2006 7:15 PM

I am totally ready for Japanese takeover! Imagine: the food, the anime, the CUTENESS! It's just what this world needs, in my opinion. That bread machine looks like it's a nice one. It has an automatic yeast dispenser ;) Mine doesn't have that.

BEST SIMPSON'S CLIP. EVER! That would so be me except there would be no prancing because I would be too busy eating everything. ^.^

heather / July 15, 2006 7:51 PM

haha hey Robyn I watch the simpsons religiously too. Of course my dad would be in complete agreement with your dad, only my dad used the words "disgusting" to describe that show. Needless to say he dosen't watch much tv....the man is almost Amish.
Nayway, that foodstuff from your German pal! Your so lucky! My God was that bread stickers I saw in there or what?
I need to pay my heritage a visit and eat my out with all that bread and bakeries over there. (pats those child-birthing hips). hehehe

roboppy / July 15, 2006 8:08 PM

Marvo: Aw, that's sweet! Although a giggling tummy sounds painful. Or frightening. And I hope this wasn't one of those meals where you ate so much that you felt like dying/puking at the end. Anyhoo, I am honored to have received the wiping.

Claudia: Oo yeah, it's like a cloud! Filled with rice! Another good comparison. :) And if it had a ketchup smiley face it'd be one of those adorable...SMILING clouds. And then the cuteness would be unbearable.

Cathy: YAY, Japanese-ness could take over the world! With French influence so I can have access to yummy chocs, bread, and pastries. The pastries can have smiley faces on them.

I think the prancing would eventually end from an upset over-chocolated stomach. ;)

Heather: My dad would say something like that too. Grrr. He doesn't have a sense of humor, so that's his loss.

Actually, it's a bread postcard. Good design though, eh?

Deb / July 15, 2006 9:09 PM

Wulfmorgenthaler is HILARIOUS! I signed up for the daily comic. Thanks for the links. It still hurts when I laugh, but it's worth it.

jo / July 15, 2006 9:50 PM

I actually have the exact bread machine sitting in my kitchen. My family eats lots of bread and we also like to make things from scratch so we naturally have a bread machine amongst many other kitchen gadgets. The best thing is smelling the aroma that wafts through the whole house.

kaitlin Hess / July 15, 2006 10:27 PM

Oh Robyn i am SO happy to see you eating beautiful food again! What a treat~its like i am going on a culinary adventure with you. I absolutely adooooore spirulina........just the pure green powder. People think i am crazy but i LOVE the smell, i just want to bathe in it and devour it like a cloud of pixie stick dust......right outta the hand. YumMY It is truly is a SUPERFOOD....super addictive! Cheers.

Adalmin / July 15, 2006 10:51 PM

Now that you've actually listed the ingredients of the spirulina earth pie, I'm actually willing to try it. Because a label like "spirulina earth pie" isn't the most appetising thing on this good earth.

BTW rice & ketchup? Genius. I'd have never thought of that! No, seriously.

Andy / July 16, 2006 12:01 AM

Senor Simpson!/////OMG robyn your the best. Why are funny things even funnier in a different language?

ketchup kissed rice is a rare find in your average omelette bar.

pupiness.

roboppy / July 16, 2006 12:20 AM

Deb: I signed up too! And laughter is good...unless you have a broken rib or something. Then that might hurt too much.

jo: My family has a bread machine too, but I don't think it's been used in the past 5 years. Or more. :O Bakery aroma is one of the best smells ever, I agree.

Kaitlin: I've never had pure spirulina, although I wondered what it tastes like. The pie has a distinct flavor...from the spirulina I would assume. Tasty stuff! In pie form.

Adalmin: EARTH PIE! MAKES YOUR MOUTH WATER!

Okay, not really. Life Thyme is great since they list all the ingredients on the food they make. Mm mm.

I wouldn't have thought rice and ketchup would be that tasty. Gooo Japan!

Gordon: If I didn't write about food/restaurant then this post would be in the wrong blog!

Andy: SPANISH IS FUNNY! HEHE! Or any other language...yeah.

And that's why those omelette bars are only average and not astronomically awesome.

Natalia / July 16, 2006 2:21 AM

I'm so happy to see you eating out again! I'm not sure if ketchupy rice would be my first choice to come back into the world of carbs, but I've never tried it or even heard of it, so what do I know? I love those salads with the gingery dressing. I'll eat your tomato :)

We're still on for the food trade, right?

Nico / July 16, 2006 3:22 AM

Omu-rice! I love that stuff. I'm still trying to figure out how they make the omelettes so that they fit so perfectly on top of the rice.

The Japanese movie "tanpopo ramen" has a cool scene where a homeless guy breaks into a restaurant and makes an omu-rice.

A friend who lives in Tokyo was telling me about cafes where the waitresses are dressed in maid costumes. When they bring out the omu-rice, they also bring with them a squeeze-bottle of ketchup and write "love" or "cute" or something like that on top of your omelette.

eunice / July 16, 2006 4:53 AM

Nice to see that the bread and other foodstuffs actually survived the long journey from Germany to NY. Hope you can enjoy them soon, but I hope I don't become the culprit for causing you to wheeze more! Probably I will end up in your mum's black list of bad people you know on the internet, haha.

TEd / July 16, 2006 1:11 PM

Dude, it's miso-ginger...that is, the "brownish dressing" on your salad. It's standard, even though it looks like baby vomit.

Green curry v1 TONIGHT! wHOOhoo!

roboppy / July 16, 2006 6:20 PM

Natalia: I ate out last night with my family and...man, I think I got some funky indigestion! And it was a lot of food. AHHH! Maybe eating out isn't so awesome. .__.

Ooh, food trade...you'll have to remind me about that, hehe. Or email me and let me know what you want? Stuff that won't melt would be best.

Nico: I don't think I could ever master the omu-rice making process. :P I love that scene in tampopo...that guy has SKILLZ. As for the maid waitress thing, that's hilarious. Or odd. Gotta love Japan.

Eunice: I'm still wheezing the same as before, so I wouldn't blame that on the German goods. :) I really liked the chocolate dipped nut...thingy...I forgot the name but you know what I mean. I think. Mm!

Ted: Ohh...man, why couldn't I taste the miso? :O Oops. Thanks for letting me know. However, I never likened it to baby vomit. UNTIL NOW! OH GOD.

Tasty though.

bassbiz / July 16, 2006 6:35 PM

been checking out your blog for a few months now, damn you love your food, gurl! well i tried the omurice at home. luckily i had some left over gohan from the night before, i just heated that up in the microwave thew some ketchup on it, mixed it up and added it in the omelette in the pan. it came out fabulous. garnished some scallions and nori on top! good eats!

David / July 16, 2006 8:02 PM

I'm so glad you're eating again. But, even when you're not eating, your pad is entertaining. So, if The Girl Who Ate Everything becomes The Girl Who At a Few Things, this is still one of my favorite blogs out there.

Welcome back to the land of gluttony.... Just be careful, m'kay?

andie / July 17, 2006 9:04 AM

Perhaps it's because I don't have much exposure to Japanese food, but those food combinations sound disgusting. Rice, ketchup and omelette! Spaghetti, wieners and potato salad! Ew. It probably tasted all right, but I just can't imagine eating it.

roboppy / July 17, 2006 11:39 AM

bassbiz: Maybe I should try to make my own omurice? Except I don't have rice or ketchup. ...Rawr! Well, if I ever do now I know what to make.

David: I'll still be liked even if I just eat a few things? WOO! Good to know. :) I gained a smidge of weight so I think I need to back out of the gluttony for a while.

Mila: I ate a few of those already. Mmmm....chocolatey waferness.

andie: It works fine! not that I'd have a craving for it or anything. I've already eaten ketchup and omelette a bunch of times...and rice! by itself...altogether, it's pretty good. I figure the hot dog is just like having any meat on a spaghetti, hehe.

Min / July 17, 2006 11:54 AM

Ahhh, omurice! I'm in Seoul, South Korea right now and see it at all the food courts of the malls/department stores I go to. And I can't eat it! AHHH! Beaaaaaaaautiful pictures!

Liz / July 17, 2006 4:31 PM

Robyn, you have no IDEA how happy you've made me!

I've been looking for Omurice since coming back to the States and now I have a goal. To go to NYC and snarf down some omurice :d

Nii / July 18, 2006 12:31 AM

When I found this blog, I read everything in your archives. :( I don't know if that's awesome or sad. Or both.

... SAWESOME!

Anyway, you don't look...fat. o_o Really. Anyway, keep up the good work on the blog...cause I like food. :)

P.s: What instrument did you play in marching band?

roboppy / July 18, 2006 10:35 AM

Min: I wish we had omurice everywhere here! I miss food courts in Asia. :(

Liz: I hope it's just like what you ate in Japan! I thought I've seen omurice in other places, but maybe not. Could've been a Korean restaurant?...not that I'm familiar with Korean restaurants. Doh.

Nii: You read everything? I'm flattered...you must be kind of bored, hehe. ;) IT'S AWESOME! YEAH! Well, being bored isn't awesome, but reading everything is awesome, I think. My weight fluctuates a lot, for better or worse. I was "fat" when I lived in Taiwan, but I weighed a LOT less. That kinda freaks me out. .__.

I played the clarinet, which must be the easiest marching band instrument anyone can play. How sad.

Ani / July 18, 2006 1:10 PM

I wish in Brooklyn Saturday too but in Cobble Hill. I went to Zahati's. You must go there. It is a Syrian market with all these neat cheeses, olive oils, grains, breads and oh my! You must must go back to the chip shop and try the fried oreo cookie. SO VERY GOOD!!

Something random from the archives