A party for Two

They say bad things come in threes. Actually, that is more a luck thing- bad luck comes in threes, apparently. I'm not a superstitious person at all- though as a kid, I always thought there was a ghost living in my parents' room. Or specifically, their bathroom, and I hated going into their room, especially during the evening when the sun is setting and the world is shadowed in this unnatural semi-darkness. Perhaps it's because out of all the rooms in the house, their room is the one place I visited the least.

Where was I? Oh, three. If we were to be superstitious, three is a good number because it's meant to sound like "live" in Chinese as opposed to 4. Saying goes that it's always third time lucky as well. Then again, there is that weird superstition that you should never take photos with a group of three because the middle person will bite the dust. Yep, this world works in strange ways and one cannot define a number as being simply either good or bad. HOWEVER, I've had my three unfortunate events and would like to believe that things can only get better from here. It's all about being positive and optimistic.

From cookkk

No better way to do that than to have a party! And since it's a weekday, few people could make it. Rather, it was a party for myself and PS (aka Princess) only.

From cookkk

Some traditional ingredients and some not so commonly used ingredients. The thing about a sushi party, made personal, is that you can just throw in any leftover meat or vegetables lying in your fridge. We did some shopping in the morning for unagi (eel), aburaage (tofu pouch), takuan (yellow pickle) and smoked salmon. Then it was a matter of chopping everything up, like a carrot, a cucumber, some kimchi chicken (?? weird, but the princess cooked it for dinner last night and it was leftover), and laying it in a presentable manner.

Fancy. I'm not usually like this by myself at home. More into one pot wonders when I'm lazy.

From cookkk

You get something like this. Rice, seaweed, and ingredients for rolling.

From cookkk

I have a confession: I have absolutely no idea how to make sushi. To me, it's one of those things that looks simple- what can be so hard right? You slap seaweed onto the bamboo mat, layer rice, layer ingredients, roll, bam- sushi roll. 

Wrong. First thing: the sushi rice is so damn sticky. Secondly, ratio between rice and ingredients? That's even harder than first year maths (yea yea, I know for some, that's child's play, but I suck at it). Third: rolling it so that the fillings don't fall out. Then there's the shape- why does mine always end up with one fat end and a skinny end? And why don't the fillings go all the way to the end without falling out? Don't you just hate it when you get to the end of your sushi roll and it's missing most of the ingredients and you're left with just rice? How do you slice it?? Yea, I get the whole wetting the knife per cut, but that's just so tedious... why do some naturally end up taller than others as well? Why aren't the ingredients perfectly centered!! 

breath in.

breath out.

end rant.

From cookkk

Yea, I can totally make sushi. Woo, party!