ehomaki

Yesterday was Setsubun, so it was the day to eat ehomaki

We bought our ehomaki from Hamazushi, just like last year.

The price went up 100 yen and still had the same items inside.

The only thing was how p.i.t.a. it was to purchase.

I walked in before noon, and there was no one in the lobby, just the cashier

I asked if I could buy ehomaki without a reservation

And she said, "go to the machine" and put in your order...

So I punched in my order and was told to wait 30 minutes for it...

In the meantime, the paper that I needed to claim my order refused to come out of the machine

So the store manager came out, and said he would check to make sure that my order had gone through...

Then another guy came out, and said, your order says you'll pick it up at 12:30, but we have some right now (in a box next to the cashier!), would you like to purchase it now?!

um, yeah!

so it turned out I didn't need to wait but had to go through all the hoops to get it...grr
 

anyway, the lucky direction was south-south-east

even though we've already started the year with sniffles, icky phlegm and coughing, we hope the rest of the year will be a healthy one!

reconnect

We were watching an episode of “Bananaman sekkaku gourmet” and they featured kei-chan and realized it had been awhile since I made it, so I made some for dinner last night

Instead of the dashi, mirin and shoyu separately , I just used dashi shoyu

Also instead of tobanjan (chili paste) I used taberu rayu (chili crisp)

I cooked this for 4 minutes, added the miso sauce then cooked it for 4 more minutes

So good with rice!

I’m glad I reconnected with this

toomba

Have you tried this yet?

I recently received an ad from Family Mart for Toomba on my phone

Not knowing what Toomba was I looked online

Apparently the word Toomba comes from Toowoomba which is a city in Australia

And apparently Outback Steakhouse (in Seoul) had a dish on their menu called Toowoomba pasta 

Because the dish was so popular, Nongshim came out with their version

Online many people topped theirs with shrimp, fried egg, garlic

The package has pictures of tomato and mushrooms on it

Cook the noodles according to the directions on the package

I instead sautéed some onion, cabbage and sausage in a little olive oil for my toppings

When the noodles were cooked, I drained them instead of directly mixing in the spicy sauce, because I like my noodles “dry”

I mixed in the dry “sauce” this is the “creamy” part of the dish then topped everything with my toppings

This was super spicy (to me) BUT the “creamy” part was also a little sweet, and reminded me kinda of sour cream & onion chips

Dunno that I would get this again but I’m glad I tried it

this and that

McD's came out with a Mcflurry with kinokonoyama & takenoko no sato mixed in

Since we don't go to McD's...I recreated it...

I wanted the vanilla soft serve from Family Mart, but they only had the strawberry version...

We used hazelnut spread and also just used kinokonoyama because that is the one we like more.

It had been awhile since we had kinokonoyama...I would make this again.

Tokyo People...the laziest cleaning dude...he picks up rubbish then walks over to the next apartment building next door to the one he is supposed to be cleaning and throws the rubbish into their sewer grate!

So if they get flooding the next time we actually have heavy rain you know who to blame...

Tokyo People...firefighters bicycling to work.

1450 calories...this plate at Denny's had everything!

Hamburger, bacon, cheese, fries, avocado, french toast, pancakes and an egg!

I had actually wanted to try their pancake tower but decided that for 2200 yen, I should get something with more “nutrients” besides carbs (pancakes & fruits)

Satoshi had their club house sandwich which was 900-something calories!

Takoyaki sauce is not the same as Okonomiyaki sauce...but if you are like me, you didn't think they were different...apparently takoyaki is sweeter

Leave it to Satoshi to know, when he ate the sauce he could tell it was takoyaki sauce...

Thank goodness this takoyaki sauce is smaller, after we use this one, I’ll get okonomiyaki sauce online since I cannot find the one I like at the store

Hijiki simmering liquid turned into nikujaga

Robai at the Ikegami Baien...we usually go to the baien when the ume are blooming, so it was nice to see all the robai blooming instead

the ume just starting to bloom...Ikegami Baien

Tokyo Furry People...keeping warm

scrambled egg topped with the last of the hijiki...love eating hijiki/kinpira like this.

shrinkflation...the corn dogs at the convenience store are getting smaller as well as the squeeze thingy they give with the catsup & mustard in

nikujaga turned into curry...

supposed to warm up a little next week and then go back to cold after that

have a safe weekend

viral

There was a viral “cheesecake” that everyone was making which apparently started in Japan

All you needed was greek yogurt and your favorite cookies 

Stick the cookies into the yogurt then put it into the refrigerator for 4 hours to overnight

I used my favorite greek yogurt & found a teeny package of biscoff

And we tried it

The cookies get mushy and replicates the “crust”

The tartness from the yogurt replicates “cheesecake”

It was fun to try something different

Would I make it again? probably not but I’m glad I tried it

hijiki

Finally got around to making the hijiki we bought in Mie

The expiry date was a couple years past, whoops

Anyway…

Soak the whole thing in water for about an hour, to bring it back to “life”

The hijiki in Mie is different from the type I usually see because their version is l-o-n-g and a little thick

After it is reconstituted, rinse several times to make sure there is no sand, set aside

Prepare the other “stuff”

Pour over hot water over the aburaage to take off some of the oil, then cut into bite sized pieces

I had thought to grate carrots but ended up slicing them thin then into sticks because my grater seemed to make the carrots a little too thin

Heat a pan with a tablespoon of oil and sauté the hijiki, aburaage and carrots

Add 2.5 cups of dashi (stock), bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes

Turn down heat to medium then add

4.5 tablespoons sugar

3.75 tablespoons shoyu

2.5 tablespoons mirin

Put an oshibuta (drop lid) on and cook for at least 20 minutes

NOTES: the directions didn’t really say how long it should be cooked, just until tender

I noticed other recipes online that said to cook until all the liquid evaporates, but decided to just cook everything for at least 20 minutes so that the mirin could burn off

we ate this (twice) over rice...I hope to use the last of it to top tamagoyaki (rolled omelette)

overall it was pretty easy to make...I want to use up the simmering liquid and am thinking to make nikujaga with it.

hey

Sorry it has been quiet here.

Satoshi caught something and then I caught it

lots of runny noses, coughing & icky phlegm

You may have heard, the other Friday our train lines (JR & Keikyu) were affected by a power outage

Luckily Satoshi was not on the train when it happened

Not only were the trains packed, but they couldn’t open the windows, nor call for help!

Lots of people were feeling woozy when they were finally rescued

You should’ve seen the crowds in the train stations as well as the areas around the train stations

The lines for taxis were long, long, long! 

I felt bad for all the tourists that had to be somewhere, since it took over 8 hours to fix 

And then there is a cold wave sending mountains of snow especially to the Japan Sea side of Honshu

The cold wave is supposed to be for a week! or more?!

Tokyo unfortunately is just dry and fahreezing, would’ve at least been nice to see flurries

Anyway, hope to be up posting again soon, appreciate everyone that checked in on us