hiatus

An emergency has arisen and I am headed to Hawaii. I'll be there for awhile. Not sure if I'll be able to post or visit your blogs, so just wanted to tell you in advance.

Hope to be able to talk with you all soon...Be well everyone.

it's been a year

A year has passed since that huge earthquake hit the Tohoku area of Japan.

Some areas are cleaned up while others are still trying to figure out what to do with all that debris.

They still haven't figured out what to do with the nuclear plant in Fukushima, but have started to shut down other plants around Japan.

There are still people missing and the aftershocks are still doing "its thing"...

In my opinion, no matter where government is involved, red tape comes before aide.

Even after a year, it will take more time for things to come back to "normal"...prayers to everyone in Tohoku and the surrounding areas.

spring?

Despite it being March, we've headed back towards winter.

A cold snap.

And before the cold snap, there was rain, making for dreary days.

On Wednesday, the rain stopped but the sky was still an ugly grey.

Since I had been indoors during the rainy days, I wanted to get out and about, even if it was overcast.

I checked out Suigetsu Park and there were more ume (apricot) trees in bloom.

Spring is coming, though I think it is running a little late.

Hope it warms up soon.

I'm getting tired of wearing socks and long sleeves...

sammy pooh!

After lunch, I felt like I needed a walk, so I went to check out this bakery, Sammy Pooh! (what a name, yeah?!)

I tried their pain au chocolat, this needed more chocolate...

Their apple custard danish was delicious.

The custard was very thick and rich.

Their walnut bread had lots of walnuts.

We shared all of these for breakfast the other day, they are kind of on the pricey side, but I wouldn't mind trying some of their other items.

Sammy Pooh!
4-9-11 Minami-senba
Chuo, Osaka
Phone: 06.6282.0058
Hours: 11:00-21:00

It's Friday here, we're headed for a cold snap next week, hope you have a great weekend!

le noeud papillon

Tuesday was the last French class for this term.

We all went to lunch at Le Noeud Papillon which I think someone said means "bow tie".

For 1575 yen, you can choose an appetizer, an entree and a drink.

I started off with this pork salad.

Delicious and the vinaigrette very tangy.

The steak frites was my entree choice.

There is a large nub of butter under that lemon.

I found the steak to be a little gristly but the fries were very crisp and tasty.

I chose a glass of red wine with my lunch.

A lot of others chose to add on desserts, but I was quite full, so I added an espresso...420 yen.

This came with a canelé.

It was nice to have lunch with my French class and for once, it was really reasonable.

The portions are very generous, I hope to bring Satoshi here, I think he would enjoy it.

Le Noeud Papillon
1-5-7 Azuchimachi
Chuo, Osaka
PHone: 06.6262.0123

culture shock

I recently saw this commercial on tv and was sort of appalled.

There is a young girl who comes out of the bathroom looking happy because she just "went" (bm)...

The slogan for the product is that even an 11 year old can take this medicine for constipation.

The thing that appalled me was why would an 11 year old even have to take medicine for constipation?

Aren't they eating properly?

Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill? I still think an 11 year old shouldn't have a need for this...

smile

I like how this red bell pepper looked like a heart when I cut it open.

Noticed these bushes on the elementary grounds...they look like they are smirking more than smiling, but still I thought it was cute.

We've been having rain the past couple of days. How is the weather where you are?

belated girl's day

How was your weekend?

Satoshi had to work on Girl's Day and then had a party with his university baseball team alumni, so we celebrated Girl's Day on Sunday.

Breakfast was at a neighborhood cafe, Ferdinand.

And since the weather was supposed to be rainy from lunchtime, we picked up some bento and then provisions for dinner.

For dinner, I made these salmon rolls: nori, rice, salmon, avocado, cucumber, red bell pepper, a little lettuce and a little mayo.

The "goodies" weren't perfectly in the center, but tasted great together.

Satoshi ate these with some wasabi and shoyu, I just ate them as is.

We also had some "poke", this was the leftover salmon, avocado, cucumber, red bell pepper, a leaf of lettuce, some maguro and a mayo-shoyu dressing.

I also made some tako sunomono.

Dessert was a brownie by Wittamer, chocolatey with lots of different nuts.

This was nice with a glass of red wine.

Even though the weather was dreary, we still had a nice day.

Have a nice week.

odds & ends

Some randomness...

Were you following me on Pinterest? Sorry, but I deleted my account after reading this blog post.

While the concept of the pinning was good, if someone had used a photo without permission from the photographer, we the pinners are liable if someone decides to sue (according to their terms of use), not Pinterest....which was not cool.

Since I haven't replaced the wine opener that broke last month, we tried this twist-top wine from Spain.

Meteoro Tempranillo...medium body and good with this pasta....scallops and veggies (broccoli, red bell pepper & eringi).

Instead of a "sauce" I sauteed everything in garlic, chili, olive oil and lobster infused olive oil.

Flavor-wise it was quite light, but still delicious.

We received this pickled daikon from MIL. It is the width of my kitchen counter...15 inches (38 centimeters).

It was the whole daikon and the tops.

We're still eating the pickles by the way...

Tried this natural ginger ale by Bruce Cost.

Spicy! but delicious, reminds me of the time I made ginger ale from scratch.

Haagen Dazs' chocolate brownie ice cream.

The brownie bits in there were a bit rubbery but everything else was delicious.

This rather chubby cat was sitting on the wall as we walked past and had a look on its face..."what you looking at?!"

And this guy likes to sit by the door of the beauty salon.

The salon's name...Hair it's okay....funny yeah?!

What's going on in your part of the world?

kusama world

On Thursday, I met up with Tamakikat, she wanted to check out the Yayoi Kusama exhibit at the National Museum.

You can read more about the artist here.

The majority of pieces that were on display were "polka-dotty" but there were also intricate pieces too (which we couldn't photograph).

The weather was overcast and it was nice to catch up with Tamakikat as well as check out this exhibit.

Thanks for a great day!

p.s. Happy Girl's Day!

new friend

I got to meet up with a friend the other day, Rona. She's commented many times on our blog and has given us great foodie tips like here, here, here, and here, but it was our first time actually meeting face to face.

I chatted along with her and her friend, Jam, for almost 2 hours and the time really flew!

She gave me these chocolates. I tried the one in the package, it is like a crunch with coffee-flavor. She mentioned that the bar is by a new maker in Canada.

Can't wait to try it.

Even though her schedule was tight, it was nice to be able to meet up, Thanks Rona!

It's Friday here, hope you have a great weekend!

UPDATE: the round chocolates are called "Coffee Crisps" and the Zazubean "Hottie" bar is spicy...Thanks again Rona!

oyakodon

After making the full recipe for the agebitashi sauce, I had quite a bit of sauce leftover, so I made oyakodon with it.

Oya-ko means parent-child in this case, chicken and egg. Don is short for donburi (bowl).

I sliced some sasami (chicken breasts) and some leeks.

I put 2 ladles of the sauce, the chicken and the leeks and then heated everything until the chicken was cooked through.

Then I added some leftover veggies from the agebitashi to heat through and then added a scrambled egg.

NOTES: My ratio of sauce to "goodies" was more so it was more soupy than what you would normally find here in Japan.

Still this was good and perfect for the chilly weather we've been having.

I'd make this again.