I’ve recently begun a new JDrama, called “My Boss, My Hero”. As with most of the other Dramas I’ve recently been into, this one maintains the style of comedy and hilarity while adding some emotional aspects to it. It all culminates into the best kind of drama.

The story is simple enough: a Yakuza lord wants his child, Makio, to become his succesor. Unfortunately for him, Makio is an idiot and often destroys his gang’s business deals by his stupidity. The prime example of this being in the first episode, where Makio is told to accept a deal at 27 billion yen. When he doesn’t, the deal goes up to 36 billion yen. Makio, not knowing which number is greater, still refuses to accept, and the deal is cut off and ends in a gang on gang brawl. The Yakuza lord tells him that his stupidity is unacceptable, and in order to prove his worth to the gang and become the successor, he must graduate from high school within a year’s time. What follows is Makio’s adventures through high school with pudding and attempting to act like a normal 17 year old (he’s actually 27). The following is mostly about the pudding.

It’s his first week of school. And Makio’s discovered it sucks. But apparently the pudding is pretty darn good. What does he do when it’s lunch time? Why run to the cafeteria, of course! Unfortunately there’s a catch. There are only 12 puddings. D:

So Makio, being the innovator that he is, decides to take the shortest route from his classroom to the cafeteria. This involves flying part of the distance.

Unfortunately, all is not right in the world. And the guy who makes the pudding disappears D: The school is struck with a PUDDING DROUGHT.

But! He reappears! Turns out he just went to Hokkaido to research better pudding recipes. This time however, there are 24 puddings! Enough for an entire class! The principal decides that each class will select 5 runners to run for the pudding for the class.

I guess all Japanese people really really like pudding? Mo, I need you to confirm this.

Prior to all this fuss about pudding, I probably ate the freshest naan I’ve ever had. Cooked directly in the tandoor with the tandoor operator’s completely hairless, the true sign of experience.

Naan!

I had it with some paneer makhani, which is cheese cubes cooked in a creamy, buttery, and curry like sauce of sorts.

Naan with paneer makhani

Last week we went on what was to be the first of a series of epic tea outings, henceforth known as “teacrawls”. Mo blogged about the first. So far, we’ve had two, with the second being more of a coffeecrawl. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures from the second, but I kept this picture from the first:

Mo with her chai!

On the first teacrawl, we went to get Bubble tea from Pacific Thai followed by the spiciest/best chai ever at Caffe Pergolesi. On the second, we ended up at a place called Lulu Carpenter’s, where I had a pretty epic drink called a Cool Cat, which is blended coffee, with ice, and some sort of flavoring. Following this, we thought we could get some work done and chose to go to a place called Saturn cafe, which we were told would be open to 3AM. Unfortunately, no work was done, because there were no outlets available for our laptops (which were about dead). However, we were met with the friendliest service ever. A pretty epic meal, including Mo’s Turkish Coffee Ice cream. And of course, a guy who we thought was completely stoned, who came over to our table and talked to us about Indian cooking, playing the Sitar, and his Go skills. Just when we thought the night would never end, he dissapeared, and we were free to go back home. In short: <3 Santa Cruz.

And so that’s what I’ve been up to these past few weeks. Pudding, naan, and teacrawls.