Wingers, Endless Sticky Fingers, Endless Soda!!!

I had to do it, again! I had to go and have some; no need to explain here but I had to get my Wingers fix in. Feast your eyes on the following picture and commence salivating:

Yep, Wingers Sticky Fingers and I are like BFFs...

Oh, were you expecting something else? I promise a better post next time!

Reuben in Rexburg

You like food? Of course you like food! I like food! And nothing satisfies my unique (American) appetite than a good Reuben sandwich. Last weekend, my uncle was out doing job in Rexburg and I was out on my day off from classes running a few errands when he called and suggested we meet for lunch. We ate at a place here Rexburg called Frontier Pies and I'd say it's a decent place. I've heard about it but I always got mixed results from those who actually ate there so I never really ate there until now... For my first time, I'd say it was pretty decent. My uncle says he likes the steaks there but I got the Reuben sandwich:

No caption necessary! You know how it is with me and Reuben sandwiches!

A neat thing about the way drinks are served at this places is that you drink them out of mason jars:

Probably the closest I'm gonna get to drinking like a moonshiner...

While I'm writing, I like to declare that I've broken a cardinal rule and committed a "sin" against my family/culture/culinary lifestyle. In my defense however, I needed a break from the usual food any busy college student eats. Being the half-Japanese I am and my awesome abilities to make (by hand and mostly from scratch!) steam-fried gyozas (or potstickers as you Americans like to call it), I broke tradition by partaking of the "forbidden" food. In this case, it was store-bought gyozas:

Comes in either Chicken or Pork flavors!
And as I said before, I was busy...

Repercussions for my forsaking of the hand-made and going to the store-bought were expected by minimal. I think I got called a "turd" once and that was it. Other than that, these store-bought gyozas tasted pretty good; a nice change over from ramen, pasta, and the frozen pizzas!

Super Bowl Weekend and Fish

Okay, that's the most bizarre combination of words in a title for a blog post... What does this year's Super Bowl have to do with fish? Well, nothing. It just has something to do with this past weekend. I drove up to Ashton to spend time with my relatives for Super Bowl weekend. It was good to get away from Rexburg (and the school!) for a couple days. And of course there was food involved and I wasn't about to pass that opportunity up! Leading up to Super Bowl, I definitely had some fun over the weekend.

I drove up on Friday morning/early afternoon. I would've gone Thursday afternoon right after classes got out but it was snowing and I wasn't about to push my luck by driving in the snow... There was break in the weather on Friday so I jumped at that opportunity; and thankfully, it didn't snow much during the weekend so I had a relatively easy drive back to Rexburg on Sunday night. I arrived and immediately went to "work" by watching over my uncle Sam's store while he went out to do a few jobs for his customers; a pretty easy task for me considering that this time of year is the slow season for business. My dad always reminds me to make myself useful and helpful whenever I visit my relatives; I'd say my old man taught me well because I certainly love doing these things for my extended family in order to return the favor. It's a win-win situation.

I had a somewhat light lunch at the Five 11 Main in Ashton on Saturday; I was craving something with pastrami (possibly a pastrami Reuben sandwich) but I ended up eating a really tasty pastrami dog instead:

Back in the day, I probably would've eaten two of these. But considering how my eating habits have changed in the last few years, this plus a bag of chips was plenty to satisfy my appetite!

Later in the day, I accompanied my uncle Sam ice fishing out on the reservoir near the Snake River. It was a beautiful day and we did catch some fish:

Looking out towards the hill with the reservoir up ahead and down below in a little ravine.

Fish out of... nevermind.

We got three of these common rainbow trout.

And the pièce de résistance: Super Bowl Sunday! But first, here's the irony behind this year's Super Bowl:

Need I say more?

I was more excited for the food than the actual football game. Of course we watched the Seattle Seahawks beat the tar out of the Denver Broncos, which made for kind of a boring and one-sided game... This is the honest truth and I believe this; sports are most exciting when both teams bring their A-game and give it their all. The game would've been exciting if both teams kept the score really close to the very end. But like I said, Seahawks whupped the Broncos badly, not that I was cheering for a particular team. But for me, the most important aspect of this was spending quality time with loved ones and enjoying some good food for the occasion:

Mini-dogs wrapped in bacon. Homer Simpson would be proud!

Hot wings! And I got to bring home the leftovers!!!

White rice, chicken glazed in some kind of homemade sauce, and elk meat. Yes, there's a lot of meat...
My cousin Chris shot an elk recently and that's what he brought. It tasted different but it was good!

As far as American traditions are concerned, I think there are two times in the year where you're allowed to have a "food coma":

1.) Thanksgiving
2.) Super Bowl Sunday

With the amount of food involved, I'd say this was a good weekend!