Last night was Nick's last evening before he headed back to Japan. We had some of his friends over for one last fun-filled evening before we all had to say goodbye once again.
Nick has been spending this week cramming in all his favorite things since returning from Portland on Sunday. He immediately went to the Seahawks game as soon as he got back into town from his alumni baseball game where he pitched three innings with six strikeouts and had a double and single at the plate.
He had a great reunion with his college baseball teammates. He pitched with four of the same guys behind him and his same catcher. He said his catcher had a huge grin on his face the whole time and just giggled with delight after every pitch. It was like deja vu all over again.
2009/2017
Nick's team won by one run with Nick getting the insurance run RBI in the 8th. He said it was definitely worth making the trip from Japan and hopes to return for future alumni games. The next day, we had my family over for dinner so I spent the day preparing for that and made our favorite apple cake with praline frosting.
This was the first time we used our new dinning room with the fully extended table for ten people and it worked out beautifully.
I cooked a big pork roast with roasted potatoes and carrots and made some homemade applesauce to go with it. It was so good. My sister-in-law brought some homemade baked beans and my sister brought our favorite cheddar, jalapeño and chives biscuits. For cocktail hour, I made blackberry Moscow mules using blackberry soda instead of lime juice for a little twist to emphasize a local favorite for Nick.
The next day, Bruce had to go to a meeting for work so Nick and I went to breakfast at another favorite, Bakery Nouveau. What a treat. You don't need much to achieve total satisfaction. Just their coffee alone is glorious, as good as you can get anywhere in Europe. And their pastries are to-die-for.
Then we went shopping at Uwajimaya because Nick wanted to make a dish for us called Laksa from Singapore. He goes to Singapore often for work and loves the food there. He brought the package with him that he bought in Singapore.
At Uwajamaya, we bought some fish cake, fried tofu, noodles and some shrimp. He also found some good quality blue fin tuna so Bruce made some sashimi to go along with the dinner, too.
I made some chicken satay with peanut sauce to contribute to the dinner so we all had our special items we prepared in the kitchen for another great meal.
Lauren came over to join us since this was something none of us had had before and it was very good.
Food from Singapore is spicy but this wasn't too spicy, just enough kick to it. The fish cake and tofu are textures we don't eat that often but it was so full of flavor that it didn't take away from the dish.
By this time, Nick was running out of time to get in all this favorite things before he returned to Japan so on his final day, he and Bruce were planning to go practice baseball at our neighborhood park again. He's still practicing for an all-star game that he's playing in on Monday for his Japanese city team. (Hopefully, his jet-lag will be over.) After they practiced, they walked over to another favorite for lunch, The Swinery. They have been rated as having the best burgers in town, but mainly they sell a huge selection of the finest pork you can get. I've bought pork chops there a few times and they're the BEST. Nick and Bruce also bought some breakfast sausages that we cooked up for breakfast and well...I guess I'm going back for more of that, too. It was so delicious! The Food Network has been filming there this week for a show that is still to be determined. Interesting. I'll keep an eye out for that show. Nick's last "favorite place" on his list was to go to Ma'Ono that is a local favorite here known for their fried chicken. It's an Hawaiian restaurant; "ono" means delicious in Hawaiian and "ma" is a prefix that means going toward, facing or making. The chef's mother is from Kauai and he spent time there growing up. Since Nick's friends were coming over to see him, we decided to order our dinner from Ma'Ono since they also do catering. Nick ordered a little bit everything and it turned out to be one of our best meals. For dessert, I made my mock plum upside down cake.
The fried chicken is great, plus it has a wonderful sauce that comes with it that was spicy and sweet at the same time.
My favorite side dish was the Mac N' Kimcheese, macaroni and cheese and kimchi
and I also liked the escarole.
Nick ordered the rolls, of course. I don't even know how many he ate. I know he ate half of mine since I couldn't eat all of it but yes, they were good, too.
We also had some okra which is O.K. but I don't care for it's slimy texture
and Musubi which I didn't eat. It's like sushi with spam and seaweed with more seaweed sprinkled over it.
We also had some ahi poke which I didn't eat or even take a picture of it. I missed that one somehow. There were a lot of different items and a good selection but after two weeks of eating with Nick, I start trailing off a bit trying to keep up.
It will be quiet around here with Nick gone now and our kitchen will definitely be a lot more quiet. It's always sad when he leaves. It's fun being around someone who enjoys food so much; he always has fun and interesting stories to tell; he has wonderful friends who are fun to be around; and he gets us caught up on all our tech issues. (That is huge for us!) We'll miss you, Nick, but we are grateful for the time we get to spend with you. Our next visit will be in the Spring when we'll once again travel to Japan to see everyone including little Hana. But for now, we'll cherish these memories of the past two weeks knowing we had the best quality time together with you and with friends and family. Cheers to a great visit. We all love you, Nick.
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