host family

Monday was a holiday, the "Coming of Age" day for 20 year olds to be accepted into society as adults....sigh. I hate this day, it means these people can legally drink which usually means lots of "not nice" things to see all over the place...eww and rowdiness.

Anyway, let's change the subject. Monday, we got together with my host-family in Kobe.

Every year we try to get together for New Years, but lately we've been getting together after the New Years, I guess schedules conflict and so it ends up after the New Year starts.

It doesn't matter though because it is always nice to see them, my host-parents are always busy with hobbies and projects. I think my host-father is planning a little excursion to Europe for himself soon.

My host-brother, his wife. Their 3 children are so lively. His wife talks so fast that sometimes I have a hard time keeping up with what she is saying. My host-sister, her husband and their daughter are also expecting a little brother soon, so my host-sister was getting advice from her sister-in-law about things.

My host-mom kept us all well-fed with all the delicious dishes she made. (I hope she had time to eat...)

We usually don't trade Christmas gifts and save them for when we meet up in the New Year.

My host-mom gave us these cookies made by Madlon conditorei die Traume. Schiffchen (which I think means boat) is a brittle type cookie and Kleines Schokoladenblatt is a puff pastry type...delicious.

I think I've told you that my host brother's wife is a foodie...on a recent trip to Tokyo, she picked up a box of these chocolate covered macarons for me and my host sister from Laduree. (I checked the internet for info on the fillings and found out instead that a box of 9 macaron (which is what she gave us) costs 4700 yen (about US$47)...yikes!)

The milk chocolate covered macaron (actually just the cap, not the whole macaron) is filled with caramel, the dark chocolate covered macaron with the "L" on top is filled a pistachio filling and kirsch, the other dark chocolate covered macaron is filled with chocolate ganache.

My host sister, another foodie, gave us a jar of jam from eS.Koyama, a well-known patissier in the Kansai area. He is actually known for a rolled cake, but apparently you need to wait several hours for it and she wasn't willing to wait. So, my host-sister bought some macarons for us to try at the gathering, as she was passing them out, she asked each person, "do you know what a macaron is?" If you couldn't answer her, she didn't give you one. (She wasn't willing to "waste" a macaron on a non-foodie, I don't blame her.) Anyway, this jam sounds really good, blueberry-raspberry & orange....besides toast, don't you think it would be nice on pork or chicken??

It was a great gathering, the children are getting bigger and we all had a nice time catching up. (Thank you!)