As it turns out, I stuck to the plan today and lazed out for a good five hours before getting out of the house. Right now I'm at the Coffee Tree, lazing out with clothes on. I've got a stew on at home; Tomoko-san from work gave me several pounds of venison her friend gave her, so I'm doing something nice for when Diane comes home from a Saturday night as a restaurant employee. I predict, using my own experience, she will want something that requires little effort to eat, served in a bowl.

I browned off some diced up hindquarter, and now it's simmering in some of the chicken stock I made last weekend (yielded three gallons! I love my big pot!) with some chili de arbol, bay, black pepper, and a cinnamon stick. I know, it's pretty wild. I'm an amateur as far as cooking is concerned, at least compared to most professionals I've met, but braised items and stews are something I feel like I've got under my belt. Sometimes, all I want is beef stew, simmered in brown stock with some mirepoix, a straight-up tribute to a single, perfect flavor. But I also love chili, curry, Indian stews with lemongrass, and sometimes complexity is a good thing. The point I'm trying to make is that once you master the basic cooking techniques such as stewing a piece of meat until it's tender, then you can start screwing around with exotic ingredients, finding out what compliments what, what's exotic and intriguing and what's really fucking awful. Yuzu, chipotles, wakame, and tobiko are all good things, but pretty awful if used by someone who's just amused at their rarity. Anyway, I'll probably finish this off with some vegetables, and maybe some Cambodian chili powder.

Speaking of exotics, we've got a new dish at work that's rather impressed me, a sauteed (!) monkfish, dusted in togarashi and set atop dashi with miso, containing udon noodles, tofu, shiitake mushrooms, and edamame. It's garnished with daikon radish and scallions, and red tobiko caviar. It's absolutely delicious. I complain a lot about doing the whole Asian fusion deal, food that sometimes comes across to me as tasteless, but every once in awhile Soba serves some honestly good cuisine. Tempura lobster tails with strawberry sauce aside, as well as the fact that most of our food is basically French with added ginger, we have some solid stuff, and higher than usual standards. It's just that I dislike the corporate feel of working there sometimes, and... I don't know. I want to do French. I want, badly, to make cassoulet and boeuf bourguignon, and to serve crafty charcuterie items to the people. And I would like to work with some mature people who respect food.

I've got to move out of my apartment by June 28th. Did I mention that? I'm trying to look for someplace cheaper, maybe or maybe not in the same area. I imagine I'll still be at Soba around then, but I'd be lying if I said I had a big commitment to the place. I definitely have no problem with staying in Pittsburgh. This city is absolutely beautiful, and as cheesy as it sounds, I feel like I'm a part of it when I walk around the Strip, or downtown, or when I sit in the Coffee Tree, listening to the espresso machines and coffee grinders, and grad students working feverishly on their laptops.

I'd better get moving so I can buy some turnips.