1. kotobuki is, hands down, the best sushi deal i've ever come across. as if you don't know already, kotobuki is our go-to sushi joint in the palisades part of the district. we got all this fresh sushi for under $50. it's really an unbelievable deal. (nigiri sushi: toro (fatty tuna), salmon, yellowtail, flounder, fried bean curd, uni (sea urchin), unagi (eel). rolls: salmon skin, shiitake mushroom, spicy scallop, spicy tuna & avocado)

2. i have a new appreciation for tequila. brent blessed the sweatpants party with a bottle of corazon. yes, it's already april, but cavin and i have been aging the liquor (hehe) and are just breaking into the stash now. did you know that corazon is made by the traditional method, using 100% blue agave, distilled twice in pot stills and aged in oak barrels? well, you do now.

3. baby lumpia are just as tasty as shanghai lumpia. friday cavin's ma duke inquired about making shanghai lumpia. this reminded me that we had all the necessary ingredients (besides ground pork) to make it also. so sunday morning while doing laundry, we ran over to safeway to pick up some ground pork, and after i made the filling and wrapped the shanghai lumpia, we had strips of the wrapper and the pork mixture leftover. not wanting to waste anything, i rolled these baby lumpias. so cute!

4. a soccer ball this big is terribly hard to get off the ground. at the kite festival this weekend, right behind where cavin and i set up camp for a few hours and secretly boozed (see #5 below), a middle aged couple had this huge soccer ball kite lying on the ground, while he was flying his other kites. every once in a while, he would pull on the strings attached to the gihugic ball and kids (wearing sunglasses) from all over would come running towards the futbol to try to get underneath it, kick it, have it land on their heads, and pretty much just play around. it never really got off the ground, but it was thoroughly entertaining watching the munchkins messing around, especially when the middle-aged man tired from pulling the strings and tried to get the kids to stop playing.

5. $100 for a case of avondale cabernet sauvignon rose is a steal. ace beverages in nw dc is a really neat liquor store. the manager advertised a case of the 2006 rose from south africa as $100, tax included (a mere $8.33/bottle) on DR. he says, "It's still super-juicy and lovely. Bottled under Stel-Vin closures, it has infinitesimal oxidation, if any. Remember, nothing's going in that wine, and nothing's coming out until it's opened. It is "maturing" as though it were in magnum format, i.e. at a GLACIAL pace." we jumped on the deal and picked up our case on friday. it's great for the warm temperatures coming our way, and it looks like grape juice in my blue-tinted nalgene. hehe.

Labels: cooking, domingo, event, pork, restaurant, sushi, wine