Dinner Club in this month

Every 2 months, my Japanese friends and I have a dinner together. This time we had a dinner at "Buca di Beppo(http://www.bucadibeppo.com/)". There were 8 Japanese women joining this dinner. In this restaurant, each meal is so large and we ordered 1 entree, 1 salad, 2 pastas, 1 pizza and 2 deserts. But still we could not eat all of them. During eating, we talked a lot about our American life, job, children and so on. We could not stop talking. After eating dinner, some of us move to Starbucks coffee and still talk a lot. Finally, I return to my apartment at 11:00pm. It was fun day!

So-men Party

One of my friends invited me to have a "So-men(So-men are very thin, white Japanese noodle made of wheat flour) Party" in her garden. She have this party every summer and this summer is her 20th. party. I was so surprised. I asked some my Japanese, Taiwanese and American friends who are interested in this party.
Before join this party, I went to the farmers market in Trot and bought "Peach pie". I really like peach pie and tried it many shops. This shop's is better and filling are sour and sweet.
In the party, we experienced "Nagashi So-men". The noodle are placed in a along flume of bamboo across the length of her garden. The flume carries clear, cold water. As the So-men pass by, people pluck them out with their chopsticks and then dip them in a container of some seasoning. We are so exciting and it was so fun. I am Japanese but I have never done it before coming America because it is special event and we can only experience in summer festival or something like that. I was satisfied and enjoy eating and talking with other guests!

Albaraki Ⅱ(Lebanese Restaurant)

I was attracted to Celina's Web site(http://celinabean.com/) and went to "Albaraki Ⅱ" in Lark Street. This shop is small and like fast-food restaurant. staffs are lively and one of the staff can speak Japanese a little. I was so surprised! Most of menus are wrap and I bought "Beef Shawarma" and "Baalawa". "Beef Shawarma" is a wrap with marinated beef strips and fresh vegetable. Wrap has 2 size; small ($4-$5)and large($6-$7). "Baalawa" is a kind of dessert and layers of filo. Main restaurant(http://lebanesefood.tv/index.html) of this shop is in Troy, I heard. I am so interested in this restaurant. I have to go and try some Lebanese foods.
Next, I went to Crisan to buy bread. Today, large cake was showed in this shop. It was so lovely. Inside the cake is artificial but surface of the cake is real cream and sugar. Especially, flowers were so beautiful.

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Albaraki Ⅱ
185 Lark Street, Albany,
NY 12210
TEL (518)445-0445
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Karavalli (Indian Restaurant)

My Indian friend recommended me to go to "Karavalli(http://www.karavallilatham.com/index.htm)" for long time ago... I went to there to have dinner with my husband today. We went around 6:00pm, then there were many people in this restaurant. We ate "Chickpea Salad", "Karavalli Meat Sampler" and "Chicken Ammwala". As for the "Chickpea salad", it was good but amount of it was big for us, then we took half of them to our apartment. "Karavalli meat sampler" was really nice. We could taste 4 of different kinds of meat menus and all of them were spicy and tasty!! I like them. "Chicken Ammwala" was the first meal that I had a strange feeling during eating. There were some Chicken which was marinated with mango and some spices. So, this curry's taste was mixed sweet with spicy. It was so interesting for me and love them. Also, my husband liked this taste. I want to try other menu in this restaurant. Furthermore, my friend recommended me to try lunch buffet on Saturday and Sunday. I will try!!
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Karavalli
9-B Jonhsin Road, Latham NY
TEL (518)785-7600
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Vacation

My husband took a summer vacation and came to see me today. Unfortunately, my new semester will start next Monday. So, I do not have enough time to go out of town...
This time he brought some Japanese souvenir for me, such as sweets, books, medicine and portable pot. I like Japanese sweets very much and I am really happy to get them.

Community Fun Day 2

Today, I joined the Community Fun Day with our members of JLCC(http://www.freewebs.com/jlccsuny/).
In the morning, I had to ware Yukata (Japanese traditional kimono made by cotton) but it was sooo difficult to ware by myself. It took over 30 minutes. Also, it was difficult to drive waring Yukata. I arrived the church almost 9:45am and some members have already prepared and decorated our booth. half of our booth was Anime area and rest of them were game and Origami (Paper holding) area. In Anime area, 3 of our members brought some magazines and comics, and showed animation with PC. In the game area, we presented the game with chopsticks. As for the Origami area, we made some model and presented them for the people who visited our booth. Also, we taught how to make them.
All food and drinks were free in this event and I got soda, hot dog, pop corn, shaved ice and so on. It was fun event and I enjoyed very much.

Community Fun Day

I am a member of JLCC (Japanese Language and Culture Club) and we will join the Community Fun Day this Saturday. We will have a booth and will introduce our club, demonstrate Origami (Paper craft) and show Japanese Anime. However, most of us have a job and we did not have enough time to talk this event. I am so worry if we will do good performance in this event...

Family Potluck BBQ

I joined the "Family Potluck BBQ" organized JCACD(http://geocities.com/jca_cd/). This BBQ was held at River Road Park in Niskayuna. This park is huge and there are playground for kids, basket Cort, base ball field and picnic field. We use big pavilion and BBQ oven. Each of us brought 1 food and I cooked "Inari-sushi (a kind of Sushi)". Other members brought Cheesecake, Salad, Rice ball, Chicken and so on. Children were crazy in playground and they did not care not to eat lunch. During these time, adults ate a lot of foods and drank Sake (Japanese rise wine). I was so happy to eat and drink such a fine day!! About 20 people joined today and I know the most of the people, so I chatted a lot and had a good time.

Farmers Market

I went to farmers market at Troy(http://www.troymarket.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=63) this morning. There were more kinds of fruits and vegetables than last month, I think. I bought some nectarine ($5.00/1 kg), cherry ($4.50/720g) and plum ($3.00/420g). Nectarine looks little young, so it is little firm and sour. Cherry is different kind of one that I bought before. It is smaller and its skin is soft. Taste is little sour. This plum is called "early plum" and size is smaller than the plum I saw before. The skin is hard but its taste is soooo sweet.
I love farmers market because I can see some interesting fruits and vegetable. I think I should go to another farmers market because I always go to Troy's. But this market is attractive to me, so I cannot help going there.