Summer Salmon Salad

It has been so hot in Atlanta that I hardly feel like cooking. I basically baked a piece of salmon fillet seasoned with freshly grounded pepper in the toaster oven for a few minutes and topped it on my bed of greens, green beans, bell peppers, and tomatoes. It was a satisfying meal, especially with a Japanese miso dressing. Yum.

A Perfect Summer Evening

Summers on the East Coast can be hot and humid. For some reason, the weather was perfect this past Saturday in Baltimore. At evening, there was a gentle breeze as we grilled and dined on a friend's rooftop with a view of the harbor. Good friends, good juicy rib eye steaks, good weather... I couldn't have asked for more.

Japanese Confectionery from Minamoto Kitchoan

A friend recently introduced me to wagashi from Minamoto Kitchoan. I must say, Japanese know how to package everything so beautifully. The sweets came in this pretty box. As with most Asian desserts, these are suppose to be "healthy" and not so heavy.


Everything inside were beautifully wrapped. I almost felt bad eating them. The one on the left is a lightly-sweetened jelly with a cherry in the middle. The one on the right is strawberry/red bean jelly.

This is what the cherry jelly looked like when you open up the pretty packaging:


And finally, there were some chocolate mochi in the box...


This is probably the best east-meets-west dessert I have had recently. I savored every single one of them. The mochi "skin" was soft while the chocolate filling inside melt slowly in the mouth, sort of like a chocolate truffle. This is a perfect solution to when I desperately need a chocolate fix.