Brian and I lived in Seattle for 20 years. During that time, we had access to a wide variety of foods from all over the world. One of our favorites was Japanese food, especially the many types of noodles. When we moved to the Midwest, all of those foods were no longer easy to access. When we moved to Bethlehem, Georgia, those foods were completely unavailable. So, imagine our joy to find an excellent Japanese restaurant only a mile and a half from our house. I know, I mentioned all of these things before, specifically on Day 11, but it is worth repeating. We missed the culinary diversity of the Pacific Northwest so much. It was one of the main drivers of our move to Portland.
Today's Japanese food choice was udon noodles. Brian had Nabeyaki Udon, a thin broth soup chock full of udon noodles (sort of like spaghetti noodles, only very thick - like a pencil, chewy and delicious), chopped vegetables, chopped chicken, an egg, a slice of fish cake, tempura bits, and seaweed bits. Mine was very similar, only vegetarian. The broth is fish based and salty; a savory, watery concoction. When you put all of those things together in one steaming hot bowl of soup... well, it can only be described as delicious.
Dinner was a noisy affair. We slurped and moaned our way through the bowls of soup. Every now and then, I'd apologize for all of the mmmm-ing and aaahhh-ing, yum-ing and "wow this is great"-ing that I was doing. Brian remarked that he'd eaten with our friend Ben for years, so he was used to an appreciative eater. (So true! I love eating with Ben because he truly enjoys food and doesn't mind letting folks know it. I think folks are too reserved about food most of the time. Thanks, Ben, for sharing your food joy!) And appreciative I was, too. That was some mighty fine soup. After a six and a half year period without the food we love, to have such a great specimen the first time out was overwhelmingly wonderful.
The rest of the day was good, too. After yesterday's fall from the 8 week challenge wagon, today was a good reminder to shake it off and jump right back up there. I started with a juicy nectarine before my quick 3 mile walk with the fuzzy buddies, then had a bowl of cereal with dried strawberries, sunflower seeds and ginger. We had some sesame sticks from Trader Joe's as a snack, then wraps filled with eggplant hummus, lettuce, cucumber, avocado and bell pepper for lunch, along with last week's kale chips. With the soup for dinner, the menu was tasty and well balanced.
Today we also started a serious look at houses. We have meetings with realtors on Monday to get the ball rolling. We're both pretty excited to move forward on the housing plan, so wish us well. Be healthy and happy!!
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