The boys of Kolmar

Last weekend, in between my trips to Europe & Asia, six of my best friends came to LJ on the premise of celebrating Jim Schmidt's 40th birthday, but more to get away and get together as its been about 8 years for all of us. weather wasn't perfect as it was June Gloom, but Tiger was on a tear a few miles away at Torrey Pines for the US OPEN and we all had a good time eating, drinking, playing, making fun of their host and hangin in LJ. Windansea beach, Jacks, Cass St, 24 hour Fitness and the Shack were the hang outs for the weekend. No clear winner for Fat-a-thon #2 was ever declared, a thief was caught in the act, and new fun tricks were shared, like the gorilla mask and A2M. An annual event was created for the second weekend in Sept every year. Although next year will be in a new location: the new house. Good times.

summer

Summer finally here with record temps this weekend. Lots of travel lately with back to back trips to Dusseldorf, Germany then Tokyo, Japan. Not much excitement in Germany except on lively Sat night out til 4am and a few good German wines, but lots of marginal food. Tokyo was 2.5 days with two good meals and lots of beer. The highlight was a Tokyo speciality called Monjayaki, a form of Okonomiyaki, which is self-cooked on a grill at your table. The Tokyo version is like a pancake with raw fish eggs. Not bad after 10 beers. A description of the cuisine with pictures below. Definitely check it out next time you're in Japan as you won't ever experience it here.

Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き, Okonomiyaki?) is a Japanese dish consisting of a pan-fried batter cake and various ingredients. Okonomi means "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki means "grilled" or "cooked" (cf. yakitori and yakisoba); thus, the name of this dish means "cook what you like". In Japan, okonomiyaki is mainly associated with Kansai or Hiroshima areas, but is widely available throughout the country. Toppings and batters tend to vary according to region.