Stuff I'm Craving

So I woke up today and was kind of still half-asleep and lying down in my bed and asked myself--"what am I craving at the moment?" I know, it's such a weird thought to begin the day with, but surprisingly, I was able to answer my own question rather quickly, and have been thinking about these things ever since.

(...and no, I don't think about food ALL THE TIME, I do have other interests--at least I'd like to believe so)

1. Buko Juice (Coconut Juice)
This weather that Chicago's been having lately (i.e. humid, warm and sunny) makes me just want to drink this refreshing treat that I grew up with in many respects. Like not even exaggerating when I say I grew up with this--we had coconut trees in my garden and sometimes we (and when I say we, I don't mean myself) would just take some of the coconuts, crack them open and have some juice from them. That and the fact that my grandfather had a farm-resort in the rural/provincial area, and he would bring back some coconuts that the maids would take and get the juice out of, such that when I would open the fridge, there would be pitchers of fresh juice that would be sooo nice, cool and refreshing. I have to say that eating the juice out of a coconut shell is another story though that must be tried--although sometimes the coconut that they give you is not that fresh. The best are when they have just cracked open the shell.
I've tried to get this juice in Asian grocery stores that sell it canned, but it's just not the same (and also on the side of disgusting sometimes), especially since there's a weird metallic/chemical taste in the juice, and the chunks of coconut meat are ridiculously tiny.

2. Fig and Prosciutto pizza

I know, I've blogged about craving this before. I just have a thing for salty/sweet things to be honest. What can I say--my craving has not yet been satisfied, so I maintain my desire to eat this particular pizza. Yum.

3. Gindara teriyaki

I know, this just seems like an extremely out-of-the-blue, and also random thing to really crave for and I really don't know what specifically triggered this craving, but gindara has been a pervasive thought in my mind ever since I thought about it. I guess in some ways I've grown up eating gindara--my grandparents like eating Japanese food, and there are a lot of relatively good Japanese restaurants in the Philippines (I'm guessing Japanese occupation is a possible reason?). This is specifically the dish...at least one of them...that was a constant menu order (along with uni sashimi--yum). I've had this dish cooked badly many times--it's pretty easy to mess it up by: grilling it too much such that it gets dry/burnt, not having fresh cod to begin with and putting too much teriyaki sauce (and having the fish swim in it, literally). But, when prepared well (and it is so simple theoretically--it's the execution that is more difficult), it is...amazingly good. To just have the gindara perfectly grilled, so it has the outer layer of caramelized sauce on it--it just melts in your mouth. Eating this with just Japanese rice is such simple perfection.