M wanted to get some friends together and go out to eat and frolic. Then she decided that we should stay in instead. And so we did, with sushi take-out from Zento. And we had a hilarious time at R’s fancy pad. M made some japanese cocktail, which was strong, yet good. And she even printed out a cute little graphic for the bottle. Yes, she takes her boozing seriously, and is a big time nerd. And we love her for it!
I love japanese style green salad, so I insisted that M pick some up. Ooh, I really like Zento’s version. Baby greens, tomatoes, and even asparagus! And the dressing rocks. I got some random japanese treats for this night too, that’s where the peas came from. R also made a guacamole. Not japanese at all, but definitely delicious.
So, what kind of sushi did we get? Take a look! I don’t have a freakin idea what any of these are. I think the one in front was crab related. One of the ones in the middle had shrimp tempura in it. The one on the far right corner has cooked salmon. And we had some fabulously fresh sashimi on the lower right. My favorite was the rectangularly shaped one at the top. I don’t know what this was, but it was beyond delicious and it all just melted in my mouth. Yummy!
One of the other random japanese treats I brought over was some green tea daifuku. Daifuku is mochi stuffed with something sweet on the inside. I’ve never actually had daifuku before. I’ve had mochi ice cream before. I thought to myself, heck, how different could this be? Well, I’m used to the mochi consistency and flavor, so I didn’t mind that at all, but the green tea innard is what I did not enjoy. It wasn’t sweet at all. It just had a strange bitter green tea taste. I thought it would be a green tea flavored mochi with sweet red bean on the inside. Instead, it was plain old mochi with green tea flavored mush on the inside. It didn’t do it for me. M liked these the most! She got to take the spare container home with her! Oh, it was a fun night. Three red wine spills still couldn’t stop the fun! And I discovered that I am a natural at Wii dancing!

Welcome back to our last installment of boozings, where we try the last of Philly’s Top 15 Drinks! Finally, we go to Southwark, for the Americano. It is made with Campari, sweet vermouth, bitter vermilion aperitivo, and seltzer, served in a big old milk glass with a slice of orange. Ok, so my immediate thoughts? That this drink is disgusting. Yep. I didn’t even say it was bad. I found it straight up disgusting. And I don’t quite know what that was in it that made it disgusting, but it was disgusting. I can’t even quite describe it as bitter, but it was kind of bitter, but not. It was just gross. Trust me. To quote the article, “Mismeasured, the Americano can be as ugly as the Americans that occupy Milan’s duomos on Perillo Tours, but Waide’s is thirst-quenching and balanced, cut with seltzer and refreshed with an orange slice.” Maybe I got one of the mismeasured ones, because it was Ugly, with a capital U. But hey, you can’t win em all!

We also ordered a mai tai. Whoa. This ain’t no girley drink on the beach. It’s boozy with a kick to the head. They definitely do not skimp on the alcohol here! This would have you on the floor, quick.

Well, that’s it folks! The list is done! And man, am I tired!

I had to finish up my last boozings drinks, so I went to watch Lost at H/A’s place and picked up some banh mi to nosh on from Ba Le. I usually get grilled pork, but I wanted to branch out, so I also picked up a bbq pork one and a chicken one. And I picked up a side container of the pickled daikon/carrots so that I could load up my banh mi with extra crunch. So here’s the bbq pork one. This pork looks like it would be flavorful, but it was real plain. Plain roasted pork. I wasn’t feeling it. But throw enough crunch on there, and I’ll certainly eat it.

The chicken one was a lot better. Some grilled chicken has been shredded up a little bit to fit in the sandwich. So if you’re not into pork, then this is a nice option.

Here’s the standard grilled pork one that I usually get. I actually didn’t end up eating it that night and instead, ate it for lunch the next day. Surprisingly, it tasted better the next day than both of the other banh mi’s the night before. I wanted to use up all the rest of the daikon and carrots, so I loaded it up with extra heaping piles of it, and man, it just worked. But I’m an oddball, I could probably fill a baguette with just the pickled radish and carrot and think it’s the best sandwich ever!