gari

Awhile back, I saw someone on IG make gari, the pickled ginger that you often find at conveyor belt sushi or as a side dish in bento

Since most of the brands (that I have seen) that make gari use artificial sweeteners, I wanted to try to make it myself

So I waited until I saw shin shoga (literally new ginger) in the markets 

Shin shoga is usually a little softer/more tender than the ginger you find in the markets throughout the year

I used a slicer to get most of my ginger sliced thin.

The parts of the ginger that were thicker and tougher, I ended up slicing by hand

If you'd like to try this, here is the recipe by Kei Hamamura : translated

300 grams shin shoga

1 tablespoon salt

250 milliliters rice vinegar

100 grams sugar

Wash the ginger then cut off the red tips and with a spoon take off the dark brownish parts

Thinly slice the ginger

Par boil the ginger for about a minute and then drain

Sprinkle the salt over everything

After the ginger cools, squeeze out all the water

In a pot, put the vinegar and sugar and bring to a slight boil until the sugar is melted

Put the squeezed ginger into a clean jar and pour the hot liquid over the ginger

NOTES: this was so easy to do

I ran out of rice vinegar, so I used some rice vinegar and some ume vinegar

I didn’t weigh how much ginger I had, so had leftover pickling liquid

I usually enjoy the sweeter type of gari, this was puckery but I like it

we had this with sashimi

will see if I can find more shin shoga and make some more using the extra pickling liquid

yokohama

Saturday, Satoshi went to meet up with his friend, A.

They were going to watch their university's baseball game and afterwards they and their other friends went drinking...

so instead Kat went to Yokohama and bought foods from Bluff Bakery and Union and also spent some time with nature

This frilly looking wisteria in front of a flower/plant shop

Yamashita Park, the roses that I usually check out, aren't quite in bloom yet, so I just enjoyed what flowers were in bloom

thought this was a unique/unusual color for irises

 

They also had some displays by gardening groups....this one was of Mount Fuji

And I thought this one was cute

I hope to get back to Yamashita Park sometime in May to enjoy the roses (probably the week after Golden Week)

Still, it was nice to be out and about

matcha smoothie

it wasn't smoothie weather but I wanted to try the matcha smoothie at 7-11 before they ran out 

Apparently this smoothie was a hit at the Osaka Expo 2025.

The matcha that is used is by Kitagawa Hanbe, a tea farm that has been around in Uji Kyoto since 1861

It was a little sweet but still had the bitterness that comes with matcha…delicious

I'm glad I tried this and would get it again...420 yen (tax included)

dish & table

Tried a new (to me) restaurant/deli called Dish & Table

You choose 3 or 4 dishes from their refrigerated case and they can either pack it for you to take out or if you'd like to eat them there they have an eating space on the 2nd floor of their shop

3 items was 1000 yen (tax included)

hijiki quinoa salad had some tuna in it and a vinaigrette, marinated salmon had puckery pickles on it and the squid kiriboshi daikon had a mayo sesame dressing

I want to try their other items, and maybe eat there, I'll be back

Dish & Table

1-50-3 Kitasenzoku

Ota, Tokyo

Closed: Thursdays & Sundays

Hours: 10:00-18:00

this and that

tokyo people : wearing pajamas 

so teeny : takeoka lala

so teeny: honda z

I notice that whenever "someone" has a tour, he gets all focused on that and the stuff he does at home is all krazy

like leaving his usb thingy in the bathroom

and his deodorant near his futon

of course, if he doesn't notice, when he does need it, he's gonna ask me where it is

I saw something online that every time husbands ask this, wives lose brain cells...sigh

I usually answer, that I saw it, but make him try to remember where he put it...ha!

And while I am semi-ranting...

he also writes on the refrig calendar when he doesn't need lunch/dinner...well, sometimes he no tell me when he erases it or when he adds it, so if I don't notice it in time...dude!

We had rain yesterday and then the temps dropped almost 10 degrees...brr!

Hope you have a safe weekend

no soup tan tan men

Tried the no soup tan tan men from Family Mart

Take off this packet before zapping it in the micro

Mouth.on.fire.

Also, it was a good thing I looked at the directions, because that teeny blue packet can make things slightly spicy to krazy spicy (glad I only put a little)

Both of these (the no soup tan tan men & biang biang men) are made by Nissin

Loved the chewiness of the noodles

to peel or not to peel

Do you peel your kiwi?

I saw something online where you should try to eat the peel because of the nutrients in it

I can kinda understand the red kiwis because their peel is smooth

But I don't think I would be able to eat the green ones'...seems too prickly 

The red kiwi peels are a little “chewy” like some pear peels can be and a little tart 

We’ve been eating the red kiwi peel but will try with the gold ones, since I just bought some

shichirin an an

We tried a new (to us) yakiniku place, Shichirin An An, they have many shops all around Japan.

Order with your smartphone, or if your table has a tablet, you can order with it

Of course if you want to talk to a human, that is possible too

We ordered several cuts of meat, some pre-cooked squid, an assortment of kim chee and sanchu

Satoshi had 2 beers and Kat had an oolong tea.

Satoshi was in charge of cooking everything

We thought the prices were quite reasonable and the service quite fast

4433 yen (tax included) for dinner, we'll be back

Shichirin An An

3-32-17 Ikegami

Ota, Tokyo

Hours: 11:30-26:00 (Saturdays & Sundays), 17:00-26:00 (Mondays-Fridays)

akihabara & nezu

Satoshi went to sell some of his "treasures" at Akihabara, while we were waiting for them to figure out how much they were worth, we had lunch at Joto Curry

We've eaten at their shops in Osaka

Their curry starts off a little sweet and then the spices start to creep up on you

It was nice to reconnect with this curry chain

How cute are these coin purses?!

After Satoshi received a little pocket money for his "treasures" we walked to Nezu Shrine to check out the azaleas.

Going through Aki-Oka, which Satoshi had not been through before, but I had had lunch at one of the shops there before

When we arrived near Nezu Shrine, the line to get into see the azaleas was way, way, way, outside!

So instead we admired the azaleas from the outside 

It was still nice to see, even though there were tons of people

I had been wanting to try this cream puff by Le Coussinet

And luckily we walked past just as the batch had come out of their brick oven

Apparently it takes 90 minutes to bake up

The last 10 minutes is when the outside crisps up

The custard cream is rich, vanilla-y and not too sweet

The "best before" time limit is 1 minute! (I had thought it was 10)

So you'll see everyone enjoying their cream puff around the outside area of the shop...

They won't allow you to buy them to take home, they must be eaten right there.

I'm glad we passed by when we did and would like to try their other sweets

It was nice exploring the tiny alleyways of Nezu

Seeing all the different flowers in bloom

It was a beautiful day, though I felt a little "crispy" again, the wind is still a little chilly especially in the shade, but it is only a matter of time before the "h" word starts and all we'll be talking about is the heat and “h”

Le Coussinet

2-34-24 Nezu

Bunkyo, Tokyo

*days closed and hours, check their social media sites

credit card accepted for purchases over 3000 yen

this and that

I love finding interesting buildings among the highrises...this was in Akihabara
 

This bar in Ikegami

This Italian restaurant in Ikegami

tried this new (to me) spam musubi, it also had taco meat in it

the spam was fried, no sauce on it

the taco meat was chicken based and it was quite spicy, would get it again

what would AI propose?...that's what Meiji did when it asked AI 

AI combined kinokonoyama & takenokonoko and named it kitakitanokonokonoyamazato

Try saying that 3 times fast!

Mixed review of this online...bits of the pretzel from kinokonoyama and bits of the cookie from takenokonoko

They also added puffed rice 

It is quite sweet but I like the different goodies in this

Though if no one told you, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell it was these two candies combined into one

Someone also said it is similar to those Black Thunder candies

I’m glad I got to try this

saw this careworker, they often bring the bathtub to people who cannot take a bath on their own

I didn't know it was this large though, wonder how it fits into some apartments/houses

I did notice that they can attach a hose to it, so maybe they do it outdoors?!

Sad they will be tearing down this apartment nearby...loved the tile on the building

Love the light green colored leaves that come out during Spring

Bi Bim Bap style salad...was spicy 

Sriracha potato chips...mouth.on.fire

It is a little chilly today, but our temps are supposed to go up to 30C (86F)?!  tomorrow...eep!

Have a safe weekend.

lup cheong

Remember this lup cheong that I bought in Yokohama?

I tried one in fried rice for our breakfast this morning.

I'm happy to say that it tastes like the lup cheong I grew up with.

Now to look for some mochi rice and chicken stock so that I can make a dish that my mom used to make for us