this and that

How cute are these teeny anpogaki from Fukushima prefecture?!

Where most anpogaki are gelatinous, this was more dried and firm.

Still delicious though.

On one of my trips to Shinagawa that I wrote about earlier this month, I had bought a small bag (33 grams) of these snackaballs made by Tom & Luke, a New Zealand company and had posted a picture on Instagram.

They contacted me and sent me two large bags (88 grams) of their snackaballs.

These are made from dates, cacao, almonds and coconut. 

They are gluten free and vegan, are great as snacks and I'm sure it will be nice with wine.

Thank you!

1st time making chikuzeni, which is similar to nishime.

It was pretty easy and fast to make because you cook everything in a shallow pan.

Chikuzeni adapted from "Aiba Manabu" : serves 4

100 grams gobo (burdock root)

150 grams renkon (lotus root)

1 carrot

250 grams boneless chicken thighs

150 grams konnyaku (devil's tongue jelly)

60 grams dried shiitake mushrooms

400 milliliters katsuo konbu (bonito & kelp) dashi (stock)

100 milliliters stock from reconstituted shiitake mushrooms

2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)

2 tablespoons sake (rice wine)

2 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon oil

Cut the gobo and carrot into bite sized, rangiri style (which means random cutting), here is a link to show the rangiri cutting technique.

Cut the renkon into bite sized pieces.

With a spoon, cut the konnyaku into bite sized pieces.

Reconstitute the dried shiitake mushrooms, then cut into bite sized pieces.

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.

In a pan, heat the oil and then toss everything in to coat with the oil.

Add the stock, reconstituted shiitake liquid, shoyu, sake, mirin, sugar and bring to a boil.

Put an oshibuta (drop lid) on, turn the heat down to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, longer if you want your veggies more tender.

NOTES: super easy! I didn't have dried shiitake, so I just used the shiitake stems I had in the freezer.

I didn't read the directions well and cut the konnyaku with a knife instead of using a spoon...oops!

Will definitely make this again.

Our numbers have sort of taken off, there is talk of another state of emergency “shutdown” but the main government wants to wait 3 weeks to see if our numbers can come down a little (they do not want to pay for another state of emergency)...for now Satoshi still goes into the office but on weekends and the weekdays he is off, we try to lay as low possible...take care everyone and have a safe weekend.

no waste leek top soup

How are you doing? We are hanging in there.

We had our Thanksgiving yesterday since Satoshi had the day off and we would be able to eat dinner together.

Satoshi also had his German lesson in the evening, so we didn't eat anything special and only he had some beer.

It is soup weather over here, Mother Nature decided to slam us back from the Spring like temps we had over the past week to the fahreezing temps of December?!

Anyway, to use up the green parts of some leeks, I cooked it down with some potatoes and a little bacon then added a little milk, pepper then whizzed it.

Super simple and good way to use up all parts of the leek.

This year "celebrations" will be different, hopefully everyone can get their case numbers down so that we all can return to travelling, eating out and hugging each other.

Stay safe, keep healthy and continue to think positively.

We are thankful for relatively good health, enough food to eat, a roof over our heads and that Satoshi has a job.

Be well and be kind.

shiofuki piman

Super easy recipe that I saw on a television commercial.

It uses piman (bell pepper) and shiokonbu (seaweed that is seasoned then dried).

The bell peppers in Japan are very small like 4 inches long and 3 inches wide.

Shiofuki piman : adapted from Fujikko website : serves 2

3 piman (bell peppers), cleaned then sliced thin lengthwise

1 tablespoon shiofuki konbu

1 tablespoon sesame oil

sesame seeds

Heat the oil in a pan then add the bell peppers

When everything is coated with the oil, cook the bell pepper to your liking

Add the konbu and cook until the konbu's seasoning turn from white to black.

Sprinkle some sesame seed and serve.

NOTES: super easy, great for a side dish, for bento, for pupu (appetizer)/beer chaser.

The recipe actually uses a combination of red and green bell peppers, but I only had green on hand so that is what I used.

Since the bell pepper in the US are bigger you could probably use just 1 for the amount of shiofuki konbu I have written above.

You can alter the amount of konbu and bell peppers to your tastes.

I'll definitely make this again.

yurakucho to tamachi

Saturday was the only day forecast for sun.

Unfortunately, Satoshi had to work.

I still wanted to check out the fall colors, so I got out early, like 7:45 and went to Yurakucho.

From the station it is about a 5 minute walk to Hibiya Park.

It was my first time checking out this park and it is quite large, they even have tennis courts!

I didn't walk the whole park, just certain areas.

They had some roses blooming but most were blocked by fences so that you couldn’t get too close to take photos of them....boo!

I was impressed by the size of the ginkgo nut trees.

Like this one.

And this one.

This is the pond that Satoshi would eat his lunch at.

Unfortunately, he is so busy these days, he rarely gets to eat outside of the office.

From Hibiya Park, I walked down the street to Shiba Park.

It was my first time here also and I didn't realize it was so close to Tokyo Tower and Zojoji temple

I was also surprised to see that there was more than one Shiba Park...I think they must have divided the land to make way for roads...

Right outside of Zojoji, I stopped in to Le Pain Quotidien to pick up lunch as well as other baked items.

Pistachio tarte, blueberry muffin, nicoise sandwich and 15 grain bagel.

Saturday, I enjoyed the nicoise sandwich for lunch which was tuna salad and egg salad, some olives and a lot of veggies.

(We shared the pistachio tarte and blueberry muffin on Sunday...the tarte was so moist and topped with lots of pistachios (this was the most expensive item I purchased) it reminded me of an olive oil cake.

The blueberry muffin was moist but could have used more blueberries.

This morning we shared the bagel, it was tasty but didn't have the chew I like with bagels...)

Then I walked all the way to Tamachi to catch the train back to where we live.

It was nice to be out and about.

Where I would normally go here and there to check out the fall colors, I think this might be my one and only this season, our (Tokyo) numbers have gone up to 500 plus every day!

Le Pain Quotidien

3-3-1 Shibakoen

Minato, Tokyo

Phone: 03.6430.4157

Open daily 7:30-22:00

this and that

Monday, I had to run an errand in Shinjuku, it has been awhile since I've ridden the Yamanote line this far...

Only in Japan can they make social distancing messages look so cute.

Since I was in Shinjuku, I had also wanted to check out the fall colors at Shinjuku Gyoen, but forgot that they are not open on Mondays...boo!

So instead I admired the cherry tree's leaves in front of Shinanoya at Gotanda.

How cute is this giraffe truck?

This tree near a preschool in our neighborhood was so pretty!

I bought a stollen to try from Sawamura as well as their tuna avocado sandwich.

The sandwich was so good, and filled generously.

And that tomato bread which they used was so tasty! I will definitely have to see if they sell this bread the next time I am in Shinjuku.

I thought I had blogged about Shinanoya, but did not, love their teriyaki chicken.

This is 1 chicken thigh which is 550 yen (tax included) and is huge and meaty.

The teriyaki sauce isn’t sweet like we have in Hawaii.

There is always a line in front of this tiny shop, luckily on this day there was not.

This week was sunny and WARM! 

Hope you have a safe weekend.

sarameshi musubi #2

This musubi was also featured on the "Sarameshi" show I wrote about here, but it took me awhile to get some mikan to try it.

The recipe is from an olive oil farmer in Shodoshima, Kagawa.

Adapted from "Sarameshi" : makes about 3 musubi

1 cup cooked rice

2 tablespoons mikan peel, diced fine

3 grams katsuobushi (shaved bonito)

1/2 tablespoon shoyu (soy sauce)

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

After peeling your mikan, gently scrape the pith (white stringy stuff) off of the peel then dice fine.

Mix all the ingredients with 1 cup of cooked rice and form into musubi.

I again made about 3 musubi from this recipe.

The hardest part of this recipe is scraping the pith off of the peel.

NOTES: Delicious! love the citrus with the salty shoyu and it is a nice way to use the peel.

Will definitely make this again.

p.s. oh em gee we had 493 cases in Tokyo yesterday (2000 something total for Japan) and 534 today...the main branch of government is not willing to subsidize business/citizens to stay at home, and the local branches of goverment have used up most of their monies...on top of that the government (main & local) are focused on the Olympics and the economy...sigh.

This weekend is a 3 day weekend but we will be laying low.

back to shinagawa

Sunday, Satoshi had to go to work, and I went to pick up our seasonal greeting cards.

It has been awhile since I've eaten anything from Guzman y Gomez, so I ordered a spicy fish burrito and added some guacamole to go.

Mouth.on.fire. 

The rice was a little mushy and it could have had a little more fish in there but overall I enjoyed this.

The an butter from Breadworks was delicious...biscuit/scone like "bread" filled with sweet bean paste and whipped butter.

I also picked up their stollen to try...this one was dense and heavy!

Look at those huge marron glace (candied chestnuts) on top!

I sliced this on the diagonal so that most pieces would have a chestnut.

This was a little too sweet but super buttery!

There were also tiny pieces of chestnuts baked into the stollen too.

I'm glad we tried this stollen and grateful we are able to enjoy these foods, especially this year.