After some more exploring in Short North, we got hungry again and stopped by Tasi for a late brunch. It’s tucked away in an alley off of the main High Street strip. It is a casual place where you order at the counter and they bring the food to you when ready. They aim for seasonal, all natural, and healthy dishes. They also have a variety of breads and pastries baked daily.

The bro’s Italian Stallion sandwich! Mortadella, salami, coppa, sweet peppers, onions, and tomato aioli served in an olive oil loaf.  A delicious italian hoagie-like sandwich!

My ma’s toasted croissant sandwich with fried egg, canadian bacon, and swiss cheese, served with a side of fresh fruit.

My Huevos Rancheros with black bean cake. These black bean cakes were basically quesadillas, but instead of being filled with cheese and chicken or something, it’s filled with a little cheese and crushed black beans. What a fantastic idea. And instead of being eaten with salsa, you eat it with the accompanying poached eggs and sauce, gravy, or whatever you want to call it. I don’t know what this stuff is, but I know it tastes good and I loved it. The whole dish was new and great. The staff is nice and friendly. There’s little interaction with them since it’s a get-a-number and mostly serve yourself kind of place. W found this gem from a local Columbus blog, and we’re glad she did!

After eating mom’s cooking for dinner all week, we ventured out for a friday night dinner at Sushi Bistro Masa. It’s one of my bro’s favorite japanese joints in the Columbus area. The chef/owner has been in the japanese restaurant business for awhile, starting out in Manhattan Beach, CA. He came out to Columbus awhile back and opened a spot. When he moved to the latest location in Dublin, he sold the old name and opened up Masa, a bistro. Seeing as how it’s a “bistro”, it definitely does not have a japanese restaurant feel, other than the sushi bar. But I wouldn’t call it swanky, as it has colorful picture menus underneath the glass on top of the tables. The last time I was in Dublin, OH, for work, my brother recommended us to go eat here. But they weren’t open yet for dinner, so we had to end up eating at the Tim Hortons in the same shopping center. I love me some Tim Hortons, but omigosh, Masa is so much better!

My bro’s Noodle Special with shoyu ramen and sushi. You can pick the kind of noodle soup you want and you also pick an additional item. What a deal!

My ma’s Dinner Box with sushi with veggie tempura. It also comes with with side salad, a couple of other little sides, miso soup, and steamed rice. You can pick two items or three items for your dinner box. My mom only picked two, but damn, it was still a ton of food.

My katsu curry udon noodles! I love tonkatsu, I love udon noodles, and I love japanese curry, so here we have them all combined into one. The curry sauce ends up being the soup for the udon noodles, and the katsu on top goes great with the curry. And it’s tons of food! We’re talking about a whole entire pork cutlet on top of a big bowl of curry gravy and thick udon noodles. As usual, I stuffed my face. Great food, nice atmosphere, what more can you ask for? And at this japanese restaurant, it’s actually japanese people making the food. You can’t go wrong with that.

If you’ve eaten korean food before, especially in a party type of setting or at someone’s house, you may have eaten japchae. It’s kind of an iconic korean dish, for whatever reason. I actually am not crazy about it, but when people want to expose newbies to korean food, japchae is often used, along with korean bbq. It’s typically a side dish or an accompanying dish made of potato starch noodles, veggies, and sometimes meat. It’s often served cold or lukewarm. It’s not a hot dish. It’s really up to you what kind of veggies you put in it. So here’s a version that my mom made so that W could learn how to make this.

This is not a difficult dish to make at all, but it is manually intensive. You need some decent knife skills, or at least it helps. And it also will look a lot more attractive if you’re very good at julienning. So here we go. Julienne some carrots into thin sticks. In a pan with some vegetable oil, sautee them up with a little salt. Take a thing of kamaboko and julienne that up too. Sautee it up with a little salt. These were some dried shitake mushrooms. Soak them so they spring back to life. Then remove the stems and julienne the tops. Sautee this with some oil and salt. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Thinly slice up some onions and sautee with oil and a little salt until soft. I think you’re probably catching on by now. Feel free to use other veggies you like. Spinach is often seen in most japchae variations. My mom doesn’t like to put spinach in there as she feels it makes it spoil faster. Thinly sliced red, yellow, or orange bell pepper would have been a nice touch. You can also put egg in here as well. Mix up an egg, cook it in a big pan like a thin pancake and slice it up into thin strips. Really, make your japchae to suit what you like.

Thinly cut up some sliced beef. These are slightly still frozen so it’s easier to cut. Cook the beef up with some oil and a little salt.

Here are the potato starch noodles. You know these are the right ones because it has a picture of japchae on the package. Then it has to be right, right?

Cook these up according to the directions. They don’t take long to cook. Thoroughly rinse the cooked noodles in cold water.

Yep, that’s right, you have to heat these up a little too. Add a little oil, a little salt, and heat these up a bit.

Throw everything into a big ass bowl and mix!

I said mix!

Add some soy, some sesame oil, and some sugar. Add little by little, and adjust to your liking while mixing and tasting. And really, that is it!