heaven in a bowl

ever since a trip to a chinese bakery with lilcee and dailygluttony, i've been addicted to almond cookies.  sadly for me, they're nowhere to be found near me, and yesterday i was craving them like mad.  so i decided to head out to the nearest asian grocery store, hoping to magically come across some of these tasty treats without having to drive out to the west side.

of course, i found none.  but i did manage to make a stop at the newly remodeled japanese market, where i picked up lots of other fantastic snacks.  the old lady adores these:

and i had to feed our pocky addiction when i came across a nice wide variety to choose from.

i came across something else while i was browsing, too - stacks and stacks of freshly carved sushi-grade fish.  with the bean's current addiction to salmon poke, i pulled up a recipe to see what else i needed and picked out a beautiful piece of fish:

i grabbed this, too, although i didn't end up using it this time.

the few recipes i'd perused while standing in the aisle called for either furikake - a seasoning blend with ground and dried fish, seaweed, sesame seeds and that evil MSG - or rice seasoning mix.  i forgot to mention that the store was still being prepped for its grand opening, with several aisles blocked off for stocking...and of course, the furikake aisle was one of them.  d-oh!  but then i remembered something.  something that's been lurking in my pantry for awhile now, purchased at this very store a long time ago:

when i asked twitter to help me figure out if i could use it in place of furikake, one of my friends pointed out that it was fine, except for the lack of MSG.  but wait - i also have this:

BOOM.  haha!  now, i don't actually remember why MSG is so bad for you and didn't have the patience or desire to look it up.  but i decided that maybe i didn't really want to serve it up to the bean.  and so i broke open one of those hello kitty seasoning packets and mixed it in with the cubed salmon, along with some soy sauce and sesame oil.  and then i got the brilliant idea of crumbling up some roasted seaweed snacks into the mix:

perfect.  i covered the bowl and put it in the fridge to let it soak in all of the deliciousness and pulled out the grub i'd picked up at the store's fresh sushi bar.  for under $3, i had this fabulous hand roll that had instructions printed on it so i could get the damn thing open without pulling it apart:

it was SO GOOD.  and for $1.50 apiece, i had picked out some seared albacore and salmon sushi, too.  i love when my food smiles at me.  makes me smile back.

by the way, i was wearing the best t-shirt ever for this little extravaganza:

i also made a batch of sushi rice for the first time - just some basic white rice, but with some rice vinegar, sugar and kosher salt mixed in.  so simple, so delicious.  and placed in a hello kitty bowl along with some seaweed salad and that fabulous salmon poke...well, it was perfection.

the bean gobbled it up and proclaimed it "heaven in a bowl," and i was so proud of myself.  heh.  it was cheaper than driving all the way out to pasadena for poke bowls, and just as tasty.  i can't wait to make it again.