My Week in Food – wagashi, ramen, tons of Vietnamese food, and Thanksgiving, of course!

This week was a fun week. A busy week. A very food filled week.

It started with these. I took a wagashi class!

More about that on Sushi Day later, but it was pretty awesome getting to hang out and make wagashi with Rachael and Jen (and Jen’s mom) all day.

And how can you go wrong with a huge bowl of ramen afterwards?

Rachael, Son, and I went to Shin Sen Gumi Hakata Ramen after the wagashi class… my first time there, and man was it good! Between the three of us, we got a ton of toppings to share, and spent the meal discussing some very exciting things that I’ll get to tell you all about very soon (and raving about the ramen, of course!)

As if that wasn’t enough, then we drove to Son’s parents’ house, where we feasted on grilled catfish.

And then goofed off with the fish head before eating it.

“Kiss it!”

After we recovered from the weekend of gluttony, there were definitely open-faced bacon and kimchi sandwiches on Japanese milk bread.

Yeah, that happened. Don’t judge me.

Fierce red nails make me feel like I can conquer the world.

Trust me, I needed that extra boost of confidence when my pie crust ended up looking like this. At least the Thanksgiving Twofer Pie that I make every year still tasted good, even if the crust looked like a five-year-old had patched it together…

The next day, Son’s coworkers decided they wanted to go get Vietnamese food.

So off to Pho Ever we went!

We stuffed ourselves with spring rolls, egg rolls, broken rice, pho, ca phe su da… while Son was nearly in tears from laughing at his coworkers’ poor Vietnamese pronunciation (and even the waiter joined in!)

For some reason, even though we were all beyond stuffed, the guys wanted to go get boba. (The glass Son and I shared was huge… as big as his head!)

And sugar toast (butter and sugar toasted on Japanese milk bread). I think Son is addicted, now.

And squid balls. (Similar to takoyaki… but would it be right to call them ikayaki? I don’t know.)

Then, as if it wasn’t a gluttonous enough week already, Thanksgiving happened. (I am so thankful for you readers!)

It started with a Hi-Chew. (Why… I have no clue. It was Son’s idea – he pulled them out of his jacket pocket on the car ride to our Thanksgiving festivities.)

And of course there was food. Soooo much food. (In between the eating so much I wanted to burst and laughing so hard there were tears running down my face, I was ready to faceplant on the table… food coma!)

In typical Kajiwara fashion, there were way too many desserts… possibly more desserts than actual dinner food.

But it’s all good, as long as Grandma brings her 7-layer dip.

Even though Patrick stole the chips and ate it all.

There were even gluten-free chocolate chip cookies and a delicious gluten-free apple tart from Good Habit.

Since I always have leftover pumpkin pie filling, I just had to make these Pumpkin Pie Brownie Bars. (In related news, everyone at my physical therapy office adores me now… ~_^)

And to fill out the food-filled week… that mess-in-a-pan happened. We’re not sure what it is. It started with three packages of silken tofu, a few pieces of butternut squash… then three types of kimchi, several pieces of pork that Son’s parents gave him, and two eggs. An odd mixture, to be sure, but that’s the sort of thing Son loves. (I stayed far away from it…)

What sort of interesting things did you eat this week?