comforts of home

With the rainy season here in Japan, two things I miss after it stops raining are the rainbows that you can usually see in Hawaii and the air cooling, in Japan after the rains you are just left with humidity....ugh! For some reason, I've never seen a rainbow around mainland Japan. I think there may be too many buildings here or something. (this photo was taken while home in January from the H-1 freeway)

Anyway, yesterday started off nice and sunny and then turned gloomy, humid and drizzly!

To cheer myself up, I wanted to make something to remind me of home, but it had to be easy--I decided to try Rainbow Drive Inn's recipe for shoyu chicken--I got the recipe from Nate at Hwn Pake in Okinawa. (Thanks for the recipe, Nate!)

This recipe didn't take too much time to cook. Make sure to pour some of the thickened gravy onto your rice, it is ono! (Hawaiian for delicious)

Yesterday, I received some fresh salmon from my friend, Kazumi. (Thank you!) She had suggested grilling it or cooking it meuniere style (baked with butter and herbs), but I had a really ripe tomato, half an onion and some green onion in my fridge, so I decided to make lomi lomi salmon instead. (I think it is called lomi lomi salmon because you are supposed to "massage" (lomi lomi) all the ingredients together.)You are supposed to use salted salmon, but since this salmon was fresh, I added some Hawaiian salt.

I hope the sun comes out soon, but until then I have my comforts of home to keep me company. Hope you are staying dry and cool where you are.

UPDATE: Since Nate passed away and his blog is no longer public, I'm posting the recipe for the chicken here:
12 pounds chicken
2.5 cups sugar
3.25 cups shoyu
3/4 cup to 1 cup vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
6 dashes worcestershire sauce
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
3-inch to 5-inch pice of ginger, crushed

1. Wash, drain chicken
2. Combine sauce
3. Bring to boil, cook until chicken is cooked (about 30-40 minutes)
4. Skim oil, thicken sauce with cornstarch.