this and that

Nian gao zapped = nice and soft (left), somewhat pan fried = no, too messy & hard (right)
 

Kaldi’s kakinotane chocolate

Wish I bought more! love the crunch from the kakinotane

The other day as I was walking back from the market, the ground had all these black pebble looking things and it sounded like it was being dropped from above I looked up and “bird convention” and they were pooping! Glad I didn’t get hit!

These cookies from Ginza West were disappointing, kinda bland, glad I tried them though

This sasanqua tree was so pretty!

Kichijoji People: this guy's leather gloves looked cool

Kichijoji People: delivering the veggies

Kichijoji People: interesting coat

Wakako Sake manhole: Kichijoji

Kichijoji People: hoping this lady was at least a little warm working outside...

Tokyo People: this delivery guy's bike, all kinds of gadgets

We're having a cold spell all over Japan at the moment.

Hope you have a safe weekend.

reconnect

Reconnected with this cookbook when Dorie Greenspan posted about Suzy’s Cake on her Instagram

It sounded easy and I had all the ingredients

I cut the recipe to fit my “baking rules” = to use 50 grams of butter & 1 egg

I added a little oil to make up the amount of butter needed 

Anyway, it came out nicely, not all recipes work when I cut the measurements down

Super chocolatey, a little dense…delicious!

Glad I tried this and reconnected with this cookbook.

back to tatsumi

Saturday Satoshi wanted to eat at Kitchen Sumikko but they were full when we arrived, so instead of waiting outside in the cold, we went back to Tatsumi

This time I ordered their katsudon and Satoshi had their katsu curry, which I had the last time 

The katsudon was kind of on the dry side, but I appreciated that the eggs were cooked through, no runny whites

The sauce that they cooked the katsu and egg in was sweet salty and there was a lot on the bottom of the bowl so I asked for a spoon, ‘cuz I’m not so good with chopsticks 

Glad I tried this.

kale & shungiku gyoza

Haven’t made gyoza in awhile

Wanted to use shungiku (chrysanthemum greens) and the leftover leaves of kale I had

So I chopped them up and put them into gyoza with some minced pork

We ate them with the dashi carrot dressing

This dressing is so ono!

Lots of umami from the dashi as well as onion

A little sweetness from the citrus and carrot

Would definitely get this dressing again

ehomaki

Yesterday was Setsubun. 

Can’t remember who but someone explained that every 4 years or so that Setsubun falls on the 2nd, the rest of the time it is on the 3rd

Sunday was forecast for either rain or snow, bummed we got rain

Since we weren’t sure if the rain/snow would stop in time, we kinda stocked on some food.

I still wanted us to eat ehomaki, but since I most are made with raw fish, I didn’t want to purchase it too early.

Luckily after lunch, the rain kinda stopped so we ran down to Hamazushi.

The last time we ate lunch here, they were taking pre-orders for their ehomaki.

As we were walking to Hamazushi I told Satoshi, “let’s see if they’ll let us buy without a reservation, if not we can look elsewhere”

We walked in, asked the guy at the register, paid and walked out with our ehomaki! so fast!

The ehomaki had shrimp, ikura, tobiko, egg, kanikama, maguro tataki, shiso, cucumber and seafood salad in it...750 yen (tax included) each.

I served this with some spinach, miso soup and ichidagaki

This year's lucky direction was west-south-west.

Glad we were able to get some ehomaki, and hope that this year will be a good one.

ninomiya orchard

About this time of year I talk about blood oranges

In recent years, I pre-order them from Tabechoku’s group of farmers

Back in October of last year, I pre-ordered 4 kilos to be delivered in January

One reason I chose this farm was the price for the blood oranges and shipping were reasonable…5218 yen (tax included)

The specs of the order was that 2 to 7 days from January 15th, the order would be sent out

Well, January 17 (2 days) came and went and so did January 22 (7 days)

I wrote to the farm as well as to Tabechoku

The farm replied that since the summer was so hot and that there were a ton of kamemushi (stink bugs) their crops were late and the quality of their products were not so good.

While I understand that not everyone is tech savvy, the farm still could have at least communicated this to us, instead of letting the delivery date lapse

So the farm said they would send our order out some time next week…

Tabechoku also replied and pretty much said the same things the farm did…

So on the last day of January, my order finally came

Since I would be going out during the day, I left a note on our door (wish I had taken a photo of it) for the Kuroneko Yamato guy to leave the box outside our apartment.

I came back from my holoholo, and it still hadn’t come, so I left the note on the door 

‘cuz somehow I just knew it would be delivered when I was about to go bocha (take a bath) or while I was using the toilet

Sure enough, I’m getting ready to bathe and “pin pon” (the sound the door bells make in Japanese) the door bell rings…after coming out of the bath, I looked outside, and there was the box

The delivery guy took my note, probably for proof that I said it was okay for him to leave my box outside of our apartment.

Anyway, it was delivered, they aren’t the usual reddish color on the outsides nor do they have the fragrance of blood oranges when I opened the box

And due to global warming, they are all sorts of sizes...at least they are sweet

And even with all the stress still thankful we will be able to enjoy some blood oranges this year.

7473

Friday went to do some retail therapy at different antenna shops

I started at the Tottori/Okayama antenna shop and purchased some rakkyo and corn & curry dressing.

I heard about this dressing from Matsuko Deluxe's show...hoping it is tasty.

Trying some cookies from Ginza West...dry cake walnut and butter 

Hiroshima antenna shop...old favorites

Wanted to try this dashi & carrot dressing that I also heard about from he saneta Matsuko Deluxe show, from the Kochi antenna shop...and ginger "sauce" that we've tried before.

Godiva has a bakery!

everything, even the savory types have chocolate in them

Tried their curry pan...filled with slightly spicy curry and slightly sweet chocolate in it...different but would get this again

And their melon pan...buttery bread topped with a crunchy dark chocolate cookie topping.

Glad I was able to try these

Hokkaido Butter...have always wanted to try this.

Most times I am not going straight home though, so never wanted to risk it melting...this time around though I made sure that the Hokkaido antenna shop was my last stop.

Hoping this is tasty!

this and that

Tokyo People: once in awhile you'll run across these types of people who don't care about others, just look at your phone the whole time so you don't need to see others wanting that seat next to you (with all your stuffs on it)
 

Decided to try Pixelfed...apparently this is like OG Instagram, no reels, no videos, no music…not sure if I'll continue or delete my account...if you are there, and like to follow us, please do.

 

Huge sinkhole in Saitama, they said a truck fell in and are having a heck of a time trying to get the driver out.

It’s been several days now and I just hope he’s okay, and that no other vehicles fell in before he did!

Tragic accident in Washington DC, hoping everyone can be reunited with their loved ones.

Tokyo People: interesting hat

nya! (meow)

Have a safe weekend.

nian gao

Lucky to find nian gao at Tokyo Doujiang Seikatsu…350 yen (tax included)

(In Japanese, they pronounce it "nengao")

They had two types, one with adzuki bean and one with black sugar

I chose the one with black sugar

It also came with instructions on how to eat it...

• zap in the microwave for 10 to 20 seconds 
• steam 
• fry in a pan 
• wrap in puff pastry and toast 
• wrap in spring roll wrapper and fry

My mom used to make her own gau, and it used to be super sticky...if you didn't wrap it properly mold would take over...

This one was firm and easily came out of the aluminum pan.

Hope to try frying it in a pan and zapping in the microwave.

Not as sweet as my mom's version, glad I got to try this one.

happy lunar new year

Hope you have a Happy Lunar New Year!

Apparently it is the Year of the Wood Snake

I wanted to check out Yokohama’s Chinatown, since the last time I went for Lunar New Year was pre-pandemic, but since I just got vaccinated and heard that 90 million?! Chinese are traveling this week, and that their number one travel destination is Japan, I decided to lay low.

I instead bought us Chinese bento from Niihao...680 yen (plus tax)

1 main choice...I chose sweet sour pork, 2 side choices...I chose happosai (eight treasure vegetables) and eggplant gyoza (this was eggplant and minced meat that was deep fried, I think the sauce was the sweet sour sauce...1 starch choice, I chose their noodles since I read somewhere that noodles should be eaten for the New Year.

I also bought some spring rolls at the market since this should also be eaten for the New Year and also just in case this bento wasn't enough for Satoshi...for his main I chose ebi chili (spicy shrimp)

I ate my bento for lunch, but Satoshi will eat his for dinner. (Kat will eat leftovers for dinner)

I hope the New Year will bring you good health, happiness and prosperity.

oh em gee

the side effect from the shingles vaccine was krazy...chills, fever, pain, plus it got super red/swollen, then itchy...eep!

AND I still gotta get the second one in two months...

finally today, the swelling is pretty much gone, now I have a bruise...the doctor/nurse? that administered the vaccine "pushed" on the vaccinated area after giving it to me...ow!

hoping I don't get the shingles period...

anyways...I'm still here...just nothing major to write about.

Have a good week!

this and that

I had heard that 7-eleven sold baked in-store cookies, but hadn't seen them in the stores near us.

I finally stumbled on one nearby...their cookies are crisp on the edges and kinda soft in the middle....lots of chocolate in there too...love!

Tokyo People: Spotted this woman from afar and was lucky to be able to get my phone out in time to snap this...so green!

ad-lib muffins...didn't have enough flour nor enough mochiko...and after mixing, it didn't look like I would have enough batter for 6 muffins, so I made only 3...super heavy but delicious!

"whipped cream" for our oatmeal pancakes...actually greek yogurt...ha!

The bilberry jam that friend Lily gave us was delicious on this as well.

super big Tokyo Furry People

Do you have a rolling stock? we kinda do for emergencies like typhoons or earthquakes...this was an instant meat sauce, I just made some zoodles and heated up the sauce.

first time seeing an aston martin being transported…huge truck!

went to bob bagel...picked up their fig pistachio

we tried this before, his bagels are my favorite these days

bob’s double chocolate scone...so chocolatey!

and bob’s tori "ham" (sous vide chicken) sandwich with iyokan (type of citrus) jam, slices of apple and carrot salad...love! I took this apart to eat.

The version I tried before had tomatoes

Also went to Yaohan to buy some sweet potatoes...292 yen (tax included) for both

in the future, will have to remember they now charge for the paper bag…

It has been awhile since I've been back to Sawamura...picked up their mushroom tartine, loved the mushrooms and cheese!

(next time when we visit Katuizawa, would like to eat at his restaurant)

kouign amann...this one was filled with an almond paste...delicious!

apricot cream cheese campagne…fragrant apricot halves inside, so delicious!

pomodoro tuna tapenade...tomato bread filled with tuna and tapenade mixture...kinda fishy but I still enjoyed this

I tried a different version before

Yesterday, I got the shingles vaccine (Shingrix) will need to get the second one in two months...if you got this how much did you have to pay?! for me it was 12,000 yen for this one and another 12,000 in two months! thank goodness my doctor accepts credit cards (not all do)