Red Curry Noodle Soup - Aldi

Red Curry Noodle Soup - Aldi

Last week was intense! Between my 9-5 graphic design day job, house hunting, being a guest artist at a local school, teaching 4-art lessons there (kindergarten, 1st, 3rd & 6th), attending a wedding, and running my Etsy shop...I barely had any time to sleep, let alone blog. On the bright side, I may have finally found a new place to live! (Fingers crossed! Please send me all your good house-buying vibes!)  

I have a few hours of free time tonight, so I'm going to type up as many reviews as I can and schedule them to post this week. No more missed days!! 

It's been really rainy and gloomy here in NJ, since fall has hit us like a ton of bricks, so I have some warm and soothing soup for today's #meatlessmonday desk lunch.

#Meatless Monday Vegetable Curry with Vegetarian Strips

Indian Curry Vegetable Meal with Vegetarian Strips - Aldi Meatless Monday $2.99

Aldi likes to release a bunch of products all related to the traditional flavors of one area of the world. In the past we've seen them visit Greece, Italy, Mexico and Germany, but right now their latest collection is inspired by the flavors of India. 

This isn't Aldi's first collection inspired by India, but it's the first time I've seen it show up with this much variety. They're currently offering curry-based soups, Tikka Masala meal kits, cooking sauces, and various freezer meals. It's been a very VERY long week for me, and even though I like to cook homemade meals on the weekends, I caved and bought a bunch of frozen meals from Aldi instead. (They're vegetarian friendly so I can share them with my boyfriend!)

For today's #MeatlessMonday post, I heated up one of Aldi's frozen vegetarian curry meals for my boyfriend and I. It has something called "vegetarian strips" in it, which look suspiciously like tofu, so we'll see how this one pans out.

Tao Kae Noi Tempura Seaweed (Curry) - H-Mart: Cherry Hill, NJ

Tao Kae Noi Tempura Seaweed (Curry) - H-Mart: Cherry Hill, NJ

Finally! I bought this bag of curry flavored seaweed snacks months ago (I posted them on youtube sometime around Easter), and I've really been looking forward to this review. Not only is it a combination of curry and seaweed, two of my favorite foods, but it's also tempura-style! This is completely different from my normal seaweed snacks, so let's go ahead and get started!

Indiya - March Restaurant Week : Collingswood, NJ

Indiya - March Restaurant Week : Collingswood, NJ 

It’s restaurant week! If any of you are New Jersey locals, you should already know about Collingswood and it’s restaurants. For restaurant week, participating locations make a special menu for the event (usually 3-4 courses) and list it at a pretty reasonable price. This is something I look forward to every year, and tonight my boyfriend and I ate at Indiya.

Contract? Making my own Kyubey Curry

Making my own Kyubey Curry

Today's post is a little bit special (and nerdy). A few days ago I came across THIS POST about a Madoka Magica themed cafe in Japan. (If you follow me on Instagram, you got a little sneak peak of this last night.)

My boyfriend introduced me to the Madoka Magica series a few years ago, and at first I thought it was a silly moe-blob kind of show. I was pretty disinterested...until episode 3. No spoilers, but after that episode I fell in love with Charlotte the witch and all of the collage-styled art used for witch sequences. (I seem to deviate from Charlotte's traditional fans, instead of liking her adorable dolly form, I love her crazy eye'd snake form.)

Anyway, anime themed cafes are typical in Japan, but they are not permanent fixtures. Pop-up anime cafes are a great way to promote new a series or movie, so they usually attract a lot of fans and they don't last for very long. The one featured in this post was from 2011, so I'm sure these menu items are long gone by now.  

Since there is no way for me to buy any of these Madoka menu items, I decided that I wanted to make my own here in the states. I started things off with the Kyubey Curry!

Chicken Cutlet Curry - Terakawa Ramen : Philadelphia, PA

Chicken Cutlet Curry - Terakawa Ramen : Philadelphia,  PA

Sorry I missed yesterday’s post, I was in Chinatown with some friends celebrating Sean’s Birthday. (You might remember that I made him a birthday cake POSTED HERE.)
We rode the train into the city to grab lunch at Terakawa Ramen, and then we explored Chinatown to do some shopping. (I’ll post a mini haul to show you what I bought, but photos and reviews will be coming up soon.)

Terakawa Ramen is a relatively new restaurant here in Philly, it opened last July so it is almost 1 year old and it’s already getting good reviews. (There is a location in NY too.) The restaurant is very narrow, but that is typical for the buildings in Philly’s Chinatown. Thankfully the restaurant makes great use of the limited space. There are about 12 small tables available, and the seats at each table are small square stools that allow you to store bags underneath them (great for purses or your small shopping bags). If you’re not with a group or a party of people you can grab a seat at the bar.

I guess it’s kind of silly that I didn’t order ramen, since the place is called Terakawa Ramen and all, but I was in the mood for curry. The chicken cutlet curry platter came with a small green salad, white rice, sliced chicken cutlet, and delicious curry sauce with diced veggies. It was very reasonably priced and potions were HUGE. I wasn’t able to finish everything in one sitting so I had to take the last of my curry to-go.

Mikado, Cherry Hill NJ

Mikado, Cherry Hill NJ

My friend Kevin came by a few days ago and asked me to go to Mikado with him. Mikado has sushi, curry and all sorts of yummy treats.