Friday: Food Day

It's Friday afternoon, and I'm off work. I'm tired and have become a little too dreamy blazing through Kate Atkinson's "Case Histories."

So I thought I'd take a break and come back to the reality of my stomach (the one thing sure to bring me out of a reading jag). Beside my diet Pepsi on the patio table near the chair where I'm gobbling up the sad-and-funny tale of loss and the infuriating inability of adults to have real relationships with each other sits "Washoku Kitchen" (which I've mentioned before).

To better help me saver my book -- and not turn into the half-crazed weirdo my mom warned me I would from dwelling too much in a fantasy world -- I've been leafing through recipes for noodles and rice. Which of course got me thinking about all the food pictures we took in Japan.

We are as obsessed with food as much as anything else and couldn't help shooting almost everything we ate. So here's a sampling. This picture shows the noodles we ate at Omen in Kyoto (or rather the veggies we scooped into our big bowl of brothy udon that we ate in Kyoto).

I would be willing to pay someone a ridiculously large sum to come to my house right now and make this for dinner. Any takers?