foodie weekend

Saturday was rainy and COLD! Satoshi had to work and I had a lesson. I met Satoshi for dinner at the New Otani Hotel. There is a restaurant called Trader Vic's in the hotel. We like their food because it reminds of Hawaii and also Satoshi's friend works there. This restaurant will close in June, so if you want to go, you'd better go soon!

Sunday was cold and WINDY! It felt as though a typhoon was on its way and we even had flurries. After doing some errands, we were (Satoshi was) strapped to the television watching the World Baseball Classic game between Korea & Japan. The other day, Mexico won their game against USA which gave Japan a chance to play in the semi-finals. Japan won their game yesterday and now face Cuba in the finals.

After the game we decided to walk around Suigetsu Park to see how the ume (plum) blossoms had progressed. The whole park was pink, white and red! It was really nice (but VERY windy) There is a fitness area in the park which has this rocky path. Take off your shoes and walk on the rocks. It is supposed to press the different pressure points on your feet. Satoshi cringed as he walked on these.

From the park, we made our way to dinner at the kaitensushi restaurant, Sushiro. Kaitensushi is sushi that comes to you on a conveyer belt. Some people also call it kurukuru sushi because kurukuru means to go round and round. We like this place because it is a nice walk to the restaurant and each plate is only $1. "Real" kaitensushi usually charge you different prices depending on what kind of fish tops the sushi.

There are a few rules that you should know about eating at one of these places. 1)If you take a plate off of the conveyer belt, you need to eat what you took...don't put it back onto the conveyer belt! 2)Wait for the sushi to pass in front of you, don't reach over to the other side of the conveyer belt to get the sushi you want.
There are some families who apparently don't know this and do these obnoxious things.

I am trying to clean out our refrigerator since I'll be going to Hawaii at the end of the week.

Today for Satoshi's breakfast I made chanchanyaki. Chanchanyaki is a dish from Hokkaido, the most Northern island of the Japan. It is a very easy dish to make. They call it chanchanyaki because chanchan supposedly means easy to make in Hokkaido dialect. If you have this dish in Hokkaido, you'll be surprised at the volume of food that is cooked. They "throw" a whole salmon, a whole cabbage and other veggies onto a hot plate grill and this is supposed to feed 2 people!

Chanchanyaki : serves 2
200g salmon (cut into fourths)
1/2 cabbage (cut roughly)
1/2 onion (sliced)

Sauce:
120 g miso (soy bean paste)
10 g sugar
60 cc sake (rice wine)
*Mix these together and leave on the side

Put the salmon and veggies into a pan and cook until salmon is heated through and veggies a bit wilted. Add sauce and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Serve with rice.

Enjoy!