On Saturday morning I got up a little earlier than I would normally. I wanted to get started on my culinary contribution to the Coastal Cosplay Picnic first thing. Having made my choice to provide a vegetarian dish for this event, since I hadn't seen that addressed by anyone else, I kept it simple and made a pretty good tofu salad. Even though a total of three people actually ate any of it, and that's including myself.

We ended up with a ton of food, so there was plenty for everyone. Lots of cookies, cakes, chips, sodas, and a whole cornucopia of junk food was available. We even had hot-dogs, since no picnic would be complete without them, and there was a whole lot of Pocky, since no cosplay event would be complete without those. I actually enjoyed my own salad quite well along with the rest of the picnic food. After all, us "old" people need to heed our nutritional needs.

At one point we had an impromptu photo shoot, and soon thereafter a water-gun fight broke out. I managed to remain dry and got away unscathed from the cutely aggressive anime fangirls. Once things started to wind down, I had a chance to talk more with a few attendees and got to know some of them better. Of course I promptly forgot everybody's name right after leaving, but c'est la vie. They probably don't remember my name either, but at least I'm cemented in their memories as "the Polish guy."

I uploaded the photos I took to a Picasa album, though I somehow thought there were more pictures. Apparently I was too busy yakking it up and forgot to take shots during other times of the event. No worries, there were plenty of cameras present. Oh, and I did steal everyone's email address, leaving me the pleasure of spamming their inboxes. Er, I mean sending them information about upcoming events... and stuff. No really I'm kidding about the spam.

It was quite nice to actually meet with some local otaku, even if I was probably the oldest one in the group. Now I just need to get all the dates and such finalized for the anime screenings here in town so we can get together again. Right now, I got September 22 for the screening at Independent Art Company, and a possible November 2 for the Cameron Art Museum. I'll be posting and emailing everyone as soon as I know more.

As an afterthought, I would like to provide the recipe for my salad here, just in case anyone is interested. It's pretty simple, and needs the following ingredients: 1 head of red leaf lettuce, 1 white onion, 1 cucumber, 1 tomato, and 2-3 tofu packages. The tofu needs to be drained overnight, by leaving it inside a container in the fridge. Once drained, it should be cubed, and marinated with salt, pepper, oil, and whatever other seasonings you like (i.e. paprika, Italian seasoning, etc.). Distribute the tofu cubes evenly on an oiled pan, and bake in the oven at 450 for 30 minutes. Next, remove the pan, stir the tofu and put it back in the oven to broil for 10-15 minutes. Once done, let it sit out to cool fully.

The salad itself only involves chopping the lettuce, onion, cucumber, and tomato and combining all ingredients with the cooled tofu cubes. Then just toss the salad, and serve with an Asian dressing (i.e. sesame dressing or ginger dressing). I made my own using oil, vinegar, sake, soy sauce, ginger, and spices. So there you go. Take my word for it, it's good stuff!

Update: Yay, thanks to Pippin, we got more pictures... Picture 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. To those who weren't there, I bet you can't guess which nerd I am!

Update: More pics have come in. First, Sudanro posted his set in the forum thread here. Then there's another album from gmstrowabarton, via flickr. And, at last, a very nice photo of me in this set from kawaii-ness. Yes, she's now got my soul, but for a good picture it's a fair trade!

Update: Last but not least, probably the largest picture set yet comes our way courtesy of Quadrain. Check it!