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letsmakedinnerplans

🍽️ Cooking & baking delicious creations to share! 🍨
📍Seattle, WA 🏔️

It’s spring at the farmer’s market! 🌿 ⁠
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I made this oxtail and mozzarella pasta in a white wine sauce, featuring these spring veggies: ⁠
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🌿 Garlic scapes⁠
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🌿 Asparagus⁠
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🌿 Mushroom medley including oyster, lion’s mane, and chestnut mushrooms⁠
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I usually think of oxtail as a hearty winter meat, so had to be intentional about dressing this pasta in a very, very light white wine sauce so it still tasted refreshing and spring-y! ⁠
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Everything, except the wine, was from the Ballard Farmers Market 😇

Going to finish off my Japan trip recap series wit

Going to finish off my Japan trip recap series with...a nightcap ;) A series of my drink photos - cocktails, coffees, and teas.
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1️⃣ Enjoying a gin and tonic before a night out :) ⁠
2️⃣3️⃣ Have to highly recommend Star Bar Ginza. The entry sign was a perfect prelude to the experience we had. The ambience inside was hushed, and it immediately felt like being teleported into a cocktail ASMR demonstration. Expertly crafted cocktails - not a single wasted motion - done in a classic way. Here's a picture of my @suntory_rokugin and tonic. ⁠
4️⃣ Unmatched coffee experience at @glitch_coffee. They roast their own beans and have perfected roasting them in a way to bring out delicious flavor notes. They also have sooo many beans to choose from! ⁠
5️⃣ I'll be honest, I'm not a whiskey person 🙃So instead, I drank Japanese gins! This Kyoto gyokuro gin blew my mind because you can so clearly taste the green tea - it even had the MOUTHFEEL of green tea. ⁠
6️⃣ Life changing experience at spirits-bar-sunface-shinjuku . Here there was no menu, you just let the master bartender do his work. You know how I just said I'm not a whiskey person? Probably the best cocktail we had was this whiskey matcha cocktail. The flavors complemented each other in a way I never though possible. ⁠
7️⃣ Not only do I like matcha, but I also love hojicha! Really enjoyed this hojicha ice cream and hojicha latte. ⁠
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And that's a wrap! ⁠
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We had a great time in Japan...and I already wish I could go back 🙃 So many things we have yet to explore (and things we wish we could double tap!)⁠
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Any standout experiences you'd recommend for our next Japan trip? 😏Post comments below!

Visiting a ryokan and onsen was high on our bucket

Visiting a ryokan and onsen was high on our bucket list for our Japan trip, and we had a LUXURIOUS time at @kakurean_hidaji (as recommended by our friends!)⁠
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A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn, and ours also had onsen (hot springs). This one in particular was a gorgeous experience - so much attention to detail, great food, and top notch service. ⁠
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It was quite the trek to get to @kakurean_hidaji (probably 4-5 hours of travel time from Tokyo) but it was sooo worth it! ⁠
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1️⃣2️⃣Each room had a private bath, and there was a bigger private bath that you could reserve. We took so many great hot baths which were refreshing in the cold, wintery air. We also had the pleasure of experience fresh snow fall kiss our faces while submerged in the hot bath - I will remember that forever! ⁠
3️⃣ Apparently it's a thing to drink milk to rehydrate after going to onsen. This local milk was 🤯 It's the best milk I've ever had - SOOOO creamy. ⁠
4️⃣ We were greeted in our traditional room with yukata (traditional outfits) to wear, green tea, wagashi (sweets), and here I am getting excited about our milk tickets 😂 ⁠
5️⃣ We enjoyed dinner in our private dining room with a sand pit in the middle which was often used for grilling or hot stone cooking.⁠
6️⃣ omg the food was some of the best we had. This beef shabu shabu still has me dreaming about it to this day.⁠
7️⃣ I'm a sucker for chawanmushi, with all its hidden delights!⁠
8️⃣ Delicious local, seasonal vegetable tempura. ⁠
9️⃣ The simplest of desserts, the BEST of desserts. Hands down, the best melon and strawberries I've ever had - sweeter than candy.⁠
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If you're looking for a luxurious experience of ultimate relaxation, highly recommend this place! ⁠

Besides the citylife experiences, we also enjoyed

Besides the citylife experiences, we also enjoyed connecting with nature and tradition while in Japan. ⁠
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1️⃣2️⃣ we were lucky enough to see the cherry blossoms begin to bloom while we were there! It wasn't intentional but we enjoyed it all the same. ⁠
3️⃣ Arashiyama bamboo forest - a bit crowded but it was cool to hear the wind rustling through the bamboo. ⁠
4️⃣ one of our highlight experiences was visiting a tea farm. We went to Wazuka (between Nara and Kyoto) which is an area that produces a majority of the world's matcha! We were intent on visiting a farm vs just going to a tea shoppe. The tea fields were stunningly picturesque (and we were blessed with beautiful weather that day too!) ⁠
5️⃣ In addition to seeing the plantation, we also to see the processing factory, taste many different teas, and learn to brew matcha. The tour guides were friendly and funny. Also we walked away with many souvenirs 🙃🛍️Highly recommend Obubu Tea Farm Tour! ⁠
6️⃣ Out of all the temples, the one I found the most beautiful was Byodo-In in Uji. Plus the road there was full of many matcha tea stores. ⁠
7️⃣ Another stand out experience was seeing the deer park in Nara! Though I had heard a lot about it and seen many photos, it's still amazing to see it in person (and feel the harassment of the deer in person 😂). It's really fun to feed them and people watch.⁠
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Highly recommend stepping outside of the city and connecting with Japan's many parks and traditional experiences!

There was no shortage of kawaii + adorableness on

There was no shortage of kawaii + adorableness on our Japan trip, especially when it came to desserts!⁠
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1️⃣ adorb macarons ⁠
2️⃣ we had the best melon pan with ice cream in Asakusa, Tokyo! TBH...I haven't eaten that many melon pan that I like as I find them a bit dry and less golden tasting than my favorite pineapple buns. However these were toasted before loaded with soft serve, and they were so crispy and perfectly sweet!⁠
3️⃣ beautiful layered fruit crepe cake⁠
4️⃣ Rilakkuma custard crepe cone and honey soft serve near Arashiyama bamboo forest in Kyoto - these were top notch 💯⁠
5️⃣ Flipper's souffle pancakes! We liked these much more than A Happy Pancake's⁠
6️⃣ Though this isn't a real dessert, Cinnamoroll is one of my favorite Sanrio characters. Andrey won me this plushie at a claw machine place :3

I really love Japanese food - there's so many dish

I really love Japanese food - there's so many dishes that rank high in my favorites list - from comforting foods like ramen, udon, and tonkatsu curry rice, to delights of simple perfection like sushi, wagyu beef, and matcha. ⁠
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I can't even begin to summarize the epicurean delights and fabulous meals we had in Japan, so I'll settle for posting these :) ⁠
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1️⃣ A girl and her takoyaki :) definitely one of my favorite street foods. ⁠
2️⃣ Beef so good it can make you cry at Matsusakagyu Yakiniku M⁠
3️⃣ Fu-unji! While we tried other tsukemen, it still remains the best. Sooo good. ⁠
4️⃣ Nabeyaki udon we had in Kyoto! So many delights over chewy noodles.⁠
5️⃣ Extravagantly fresh (and pretty inexpensive) sushi at the Toyosu Fish Market - doesn't get better than that! These were both seared nigiri with excellent fatty and smokey flavors. ⁠
6️⃣ I looovveeee a good, juicy, fatty tonkatsu with a mountain of cabbage salad on the side. This place, Butagami, had lots of different cuts from different regions to choose from. ⁠
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I could have stayed in Japan longer, just to have more days with more meals! (Unfortunately there's only so many meals one can eat in a day, even when you try to have two lunches a day. 😂 )

After years of waiting, we've finally made it to J

After years of waiting, we've finally made it to Japan! (along with everyone else it seems 😅)⁠
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I've long had a particular interest in Japan. From its delicious food, vibrant culture, and fascinating juxtaposition of the traditional and the modern, there's so much to explore! Also...once a weeb, always a weeb 😹 ⁠
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Here begins a series of photo dumps of my favorite photos and special moments, starting with our city adventures: ⁠
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1️⃣ Exploring Akihabara, playing in arcades, and looking at all the anime goodies ⁠
2️⃣ It never ceases to amaze me how bustling the streets are at night (and yet, how safe it feels!) ⁠
3️⃣ Wandering the streets of Harajuku - looking at trendy clothes and cute cafes.⁠
4️⃣ We got a free suite upgrade thanks to Marriott in Osaka! Our beautiful bath tub 🥰⁠
5️⃣ Went to TeamLab Planets which was super fun! My favorite room was this one with the lights.⁠
6️⃣ Andrey and I were joking that this is my magazine cover 😂⁠
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More photos to come! ⁠

Short rib stew with carrot greens chimichurri and

Short rib stew with carrot greens chimichurri and fiddlehead ferns.
It’s raining outside, as one would expect from Seattle. Thus I have been in the mood for stews.
To add a little something extra, I made a chimichurri with the carrot tops. I was also inspired by the fiddleheads I saw in the market - they are in season!
#shortribs #stew #fiddleheads #wineanddine

🦐Wild caught shrimp and halibut cioppino + char

🦐Wild caught shrimp and halibut cioppino + charred leeks + homemade sourdough
Been on the move a lot in the past year, but finally settled in our new home in WA - which means I’m finally reunited with all my cookware!! happy to be cooking again 😊
#cioppino #leeks #sourdough #sourdoughbread

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