takoyaki and curry party at koki’s!!

on saturday, july 17th, i went over to my friend’s loft in brooklyn late at night after spending the entire day with the very lovely fashion hayley from australia! yayyy!

haha! here's hayley taking a snap of this really cute girl in williamsburg!

it was so hot on saturday, both hayley and i had to take rest stops every couple of hours. we went from williamsburg to the east village to noho to soho! quite a feat in this terrible weather, i have to say!

at the end of the day, we even had to buy cheap 2 for $5 beach sandals from old navy because we both had feet that were killing us!! we were seriously waddling along in pain! it was hilarious! and the sighs of relief after changing out of our old sandals and into the flip-flops…. ahhhhh~~~.

this photo is courtesy of fashion hayley. the girl in the middle is one of her readers who happened to walk by and said hi to hayley while we sat and talked on the stoop!

i dropped off my stuff at home and then headed to brooklyn. 4 of my friends live together in a loft there, and it wasn’t any sort of party or anything, but they were drinking beers and asked anyone who was bored shitless to drop by.

so of course…

when i got there, someone had put one of those caps on the fire hydrant downstairs and left it running. so the photographer in the house decided to run down to snap some pictures and we went along because we were busybodies. what else. i kept trying to peep and see what functions ryosuke was using to take his pictures and what type of buttons he was pressing, but man, it was too complicated for me! i really wish i was better at taking photos!

one of their neighbours from downstairs brought out their shampoo, bath gel AND loofah and had their entire shower in the water. really? a loofah too? REALLY!??!

after the photo-taking, ryosuke and tossy both jumped in too. the next day, tossy got sick. AHAHAH.

i don’t even know what i was doing at their house… i think we were really just lazing around and having random conversations. before i knew it, it got light outside and i finally took a cab home at about 6am. the sky was so clear. it was really pretty and peaceful.

it's weird how much energy and qi i get from looking at the sky.

that night, we met at about 6pm at the japanese supermarket in the east village to buy ingredients for food, then took the train to brooklyn again and headed for koki’s new home. he’s moved into an apartment with his girlfriend, lisa, in a completely mexican part of town! as we walked from the station to his apartment, everyone we saw were mexicans! not that i don’t have mexican friends that i adore, but being the only two asians there, i hope they don’t run into any trouble. we must have been quite a sight – a group of asian people walking down the street in our colourful gear. haha!

koki’s new apartment was really long and spacious… but VERY hot! he had air-conditioners at both ends but we all wondered out loud how the previous tenants used the rooms in between. they were like furnaces!

he made us some gorgeous japanese seafood curry to eat. yummmmm!!! i hadn’t had japanese curry in a while so it was really exciting. i don’t know if he added stock, or maybe it was the sweetness from the prawns, but the curry didn’t taste anything like the ready-made curry cubes that he added in. i was sooo impressed!

total cafe-standard japanese/western-inspired curry with parsley sprinkled on top. then we learnt he DID work in a cafe before. aha!

the other exciting part of the evening was making takoyaki balls!! you might have seen them before. they are really famous in osaka, japan, and are often sold at festivals or road-side stalls throughout japan. i’d bought a takoyaki pan (with the holes to make those balls), so we all took turns making it.

how cute is this dude? he's the "oiler".

the room was soooooo hot because of the stove, i was gonna faint.

after pouring in the batter, you add octopus, and spring onions (or any other ingredients you want, like cheese etc), and start flipping it!

when the outside turned crispy and the inside was cooked through, the layering of the sauces begin! okonomiyaki sauce with kewpie mayonnaise and aonori!

the finished product! so good! tres bon! maji oishikatta!

in singapore, i had several okonomiyaki parties with my friends or at home with my family. and in japan, we had them once every now and then too. so i was really excited to have it again here in new york! okonomiyaki is really similar to takoyaki. “okonomi” means “favorite” or “what you like”, and “yaki” is “cooked” or “grilled”. basically you mix whatever you want into the batter. usual ingredients are stuff like shredded cabbage, prawns, pork, eggs, cheese, whatever.

“tako” means octopus. so putting in cut cubes of octopus is the norm, but now, it’s evolved to be really similar to okonomiyaki. you can basically put whatever you like in there. salmon, cheese, mentaiko… there’s even desert takoyaki now where you put chocolate into plain batter. sounds good, no?

if you’ve never tried takoyaki or okonomiyaki, you have to one day! especially okonomiyaki, since you can make it with any fry pan or hot plate. plus, it’s really easy to make and terribly delish. i will put up a good recipe soon!!

testing the first takoyaki to see if it cooked through

and it is!! yay!

i don’t know what we did the rest of the night. half of it was spent around the portable stove cooking the takoyaki, and the rest we just talked, and played the yamanote-sen game again. just like during the previous party, i had no clue to some of the questions and had to take a forfeit and ate this disgusting mix of fermented natto beans, mentaiko, ginger and not sure what else. tears came to my eyes and i thought i was going to puke. YUCK.

slowly stepping away from the fire and letting them do the work. lol. sorry.

no comment.

*guffaw*

tossy and ryo with sudden high energies.

i kinda liked this mexican beer from the neighbourhood deli!

and here's to the couple and their new home!

what have you guys been up to? summer parties? i’ve been obsessed with having people over or going to friends’ homes. almost everyday. with school over and while i haven’t found a job yet, i feel as though i need to fill this lonely gap in my life.

i never really socialised much while i was at parsons because i was too tired and couldn’t be bothered to go out and party like some of the kids did. so i stuck to my small social circle. i adore my friends, i do, but before work starts (if i ever do find a job) and things start getting busy again, i need to hang out with them as much as i can, see them often and just laugh nonstop, before i miss the chance to build memories and regret later.

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Tagged as: food, friends, new york