Gastrolust

I’ve been a bit absent of late, it’s true, but with good reason: I’ve been working hard to hasten my departure to Japan.

Akiko’s already there, and I was scheduled to leave Thursday, but I just rebooked my ticket (I have the luxury of flying first class, and I was able to change at no charge) to depart tomorrow instead! That means one more day of hustling to get my work done, then scrambling to shop so I can fulfill that crazy custom of omiyage, and finally doing some laundry and packing my bags.

This will be my ninth visit to Japan, and it was slated to be my shortest at nine days, but I’ll take full advantage of one extra day, as there are so many (food) items on my to-do list: several types of ramen, two xiao long bao places (okay, the list is actually quite “Chinese” so far), yakitori, sushi, raw horsemeat ice cream, and more.

One challenge (albeit a nice one) is that I have many friends and family to visit. This translates to lots of great, home-cooked meals. Big meals. Happily taking up stomach space. Will ramen noodles successfully slide in to fill the missing gaps? And will I really eat raw horsemeat ice cream? Stay tuned. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to report back from under the rising sun, but certainly upon my return.

If you’re missing my writing, note that I have two articles in the current issue of Edible Seattle, available now at news stands. And here’s the first one I wrote for Edible, about the making of pavlova. Enjoy!