If you don’t enjoy food and don’t get excited about learning new recipes, then you can skip this post.

I love Koto’s.  A lot.  For those of you poor and unfortunate souls that don’t know, Koto’s is a Japanese Steak House about a block from my office.  It is quite the favorite place to have lunch.  I love me some Hibachi Steak.  There’s really nothing special about the restaurant, but I love the food.  It just your standard “cook on the table” Japanese restaurant, but the food is great.  It’s also quite economical.  I can get salad, soup, fried rice (the best part), grilled vegetables, and the best mouth watering steak around for 8 bucks.  Where else can you get that?

It’s also a big favorite of my wife.  We used to go to Shogun’s every year on our anniversary.  But since we’ve found Koto’s, we prefer to go there.  And my wife could eat the fried rice alone and be happy.  And the mustard sauce.  She loves that.  So much so that I tried to recreate the whole hibachi experience at home on my little griddle.  Let’s just say, I need more practice.  The key ingredient is the mustard sauce.  I looked high and low for a recipe for mustard sauce.  You can’t just buy it in a store.  You have to make it.  And there are not many places out there that have a mustard sauce recipe.  Every recipe I found was drastically different than the other.  So when it came time to make it, it was like playing Russian Roulette with different ingredients.  It did not turn out very good.

All of that is about to change though.  While at Koto’s today, I asked the chef if they make the sauce or if they buy it.  And he said that he made it.  I asked if it was a secret recipe.  He said no and asked if I would like to know it.  I almost came out of my seat and jumped over the table.  After he finished cooking, he went in the back and actually wrote the recipe down for me.  Everybody at my table was asking for a copy.  That guy was awesome!  So, since I could never find a good recipe online, this is my contribution to the rest of the world that likes a really good Japanese Mustard Sauce.  Obviously, this makes a lot of sauce so feel free to cut it down to your own specifications.

Koto’s Mustard Sauce

3.5 oz Ground Mustard

2 Onions

2 Carrots

1/2 cup Garlic

1/2 cup Sesame Seeds

2 cups Mayonaise

1 cup Sugar

3 cups Soy Sauce

1 1/2 cups Vegetable Oil

1 tsp Pepper

1 tsp Salt

Finely chop onions, carrots, and garlic.

Place all ingredients in blender and blend until it has a creamy consistency.

There.  It’s done.  Granted, it’s not like I’m posting the cure for cancer for all the world to enjoy, but it is quite a delectable addition to a Japanese meal.  Enjoy.

I’ve spent the past week in Jacksonville, FL. At first glance, that seems like a nice vacation. But, alas, it not vacation; it is work. Amy was really wanting to go to this trip but I found out kinda last minute and there was no way we could afford the price of that plane ticket. I really wanted both of them (Iliana and Amy) to go, but turns out, it’s good that they didn’t. You see, they wanted to go to the beach, which is only a few miles away from here. So, Amy was really jealous that I was going to be this close to the beach without her. I told her that it was no need to worry because I was going to be working all the time. Anyway, it has rained all week, so even if I had time and wanted to, I couldn’t go to the beach. And now, as we wrap up and are waiting to go to the airport, I’m looking out the window to a beautiful sunny day. Typical.

So, hopefully the flight back will go just fine. We fly out from Jacksonville to Atlanta and then to Little Rock.

Okay, so, here come the food reviews for Dustin. Lunch was provided each day at the office, so, once again, nothing to write home about.

Monday Night

Sticky Fingers – Great barbecue. I had a Half Slab & Half Pulled Pork. One word: Delicious. I’d have to give that meal a 8 out of 10 rating. The ribs were so tender that I could just pull the bones out of the meat. I topped them off with a Carolina Sweet Barbecue Sauce. A-MAZ-ING! I also tried a new beer called Yuengling. Really nice smooth beer.

Tuesday Night

Sneakers – This restaurant was right next to our hotel. Actually, it was the restaurant that provided room service for the hotel. I got a Smothered Burger (at least that’s what I think it was called) and Onion Rings. It was delicious. Or as Backpack on Dora the Explorer says, “Delicioso!” This night I tried out the Sam Adams Seasonal Summer Ale. Good smooth beer.

Wednesday Night

Sneakers – Went back to Sneakers and got the Western Burger with Onion Rings. Once again, a great burger. I went back to the Yuengling beer this night. Great place to go and watch the Olympics. Since it was a sports bar, there were TVs and projection screens everywhere.

Thursday Night

River City Brewing Company – On this night, we had our company outing to celebrate the end of our 3 week Discovery Workshop. This restaurant was awesome! They really took care of us. They brought out a great appetizer tray that was full of broiled shrimp, coconut shrimp, crap cakes, breads, and some chicken. They had a their own brewery there (obviously) and I tried the Jack Light. It was really good. As you can tell, I’m more of a light beer kind of person. It sounds like I drink a lot, but the only reason I drank any was because I didn’t have to drive anywhere and it was an interesting beer. I usually only drink twice a year. Anyway, I ordered a House Salad to start with followed by the Prime Rib. Both were great. I finished it up with a scrumptious Bread Pudding. I was in pain by the end of the night.

Well, it’s Friday and I can’t wait to get back home. So, I’m about to pack it up and head out. See ya later.

Well, so far, so good. I really like the new office. Everyone here is super friendly. Maybe that’s because they haven’t asked me to do anything yet, who knows. A few new people start this week. They pretty much tripled the size of their team with this round of hirings. Thursday we had a meeting that basically outlined our projects that we would be working on. Looks exciting. I work in the PMO, Project Management Office. Our job is to coordinate, implement, and track any changes to systems and processes in the company. I’m pretty excited about it. I’d be really excited if they sent me down to the Florida office for about a week for some “training.”

Oh, and for Dustin, the move to downtown Little Rock coupled with the fact that I’m carpooling now results in me visiting in some really tasty restaurants. My company doesn’t offer paid parking and there are only so many spots on the parking deck, which are for upper management and people with more seniority than me. So, the guys I ride with are management. We use their spots when I drive, but I have to have them to get in and out of the deck. So, when they drive, I’m stuck here. When I drive, I’m stuck here. I said all of that to say that if I don’t bring my lunch, I have to walk to somewhere to eat. This, so far, has turned out pretty good. And this brings me to my first review:

Your Mama’s Good Food

If you like country cooking, you’ll like this place. You get to choose what size plate you want: Veggies, 1 meat and 1 veggie, 1 meat 2 veggies, and so forth up to All You Can Eat. Some of the choices for meat were Meatloaf, Fried Catfish and a couple of other thing. The veggies are the basic southern veggies. I got the Fried Catfish and Twice Baked Potato. Food was really good and lived up to it’s name. My only problem was the price. My total came to $7.50, that included the plate, a roll, and a drink. A little pricey for the amount of food that I got. Other than that, it was great.

So, there you go.