odds and ends

Well, it's been 4 weeks...Grandma's doing fine, we've been taking her to do her grocery shopping and to some of her "normal" appointments.

On other days, I've been shuttling my parents here and there. It's not that they don't drive, but they "don't like" to drive unless they have to, and feel that since I do not drive in Japan, that I may "feel the need" to get driving out of my system...please add chauffeur to my resume (ahem!).

For most of days here, the weather has been miserably humid (Isn't it November??). Add to that the vog (volcanic smog?!)...ugh!

Anyway, I wanted to round-up some of the eats, let's get the "not so great eats" out of the way...

Just Tacos' Quesadilla...some pulled beef (which they call birria), melted cheese between two flour tortillas...thank goodness I took some salsa, there was no other flavor to the meal...UPDATE: as of 3/2012, this place has closed

Starbucks pumpkin spice latte...I like the version in Japan, which I think is non-sweetened then topped with whipped cream and pumpkin spices. This one was sickly sweet then topped off with whipped cream and the pumpkin spices, reminded me of their sickly sweet Chai Tea Latte...blah!

Sam's Club pizza...nice toppings but spongy crusts.

Quickly moving onto the "good eats"...

Baked manapua (char siu bao) from Chun Wah Kam US$1.85 + tax....I used to like the steamed version but have been converted with this one because the outside is soft and a little sweet like brioche and IMO (in my opinion), there is WAY more filling. (sorry no photo)

A teeny teri-beef sandwich from Bob's Bar-B-Que US$2.70 + tax...kinda disappointed with the size of this sandwich, and toughness of the sliced beef, but the flavor was ono! (delicious!) (sorry no photo)...gotta go back to try their steak fries, next year...

A HUGE portobello mushroom sandwich eaten with good friends during lunch at Assagio's. If you've ever eaten here, you'll know that before your meal they serve a loaf of their warm crusty bread. Well, they use the same sized loaf for this sandwich!

It was packed with portobello mushrooms, red bell pepper, onions, spinach sauteed in garlic and olive oil, PLUS it came with a small house salad! US$10.90+tax. (sorry no photo)

A couple of Nanding's spanish rolls, which I've written about here...they have a new location in Waipahu....buttery, soft, a little sweet, mmm! (no photo, sorry!)

Addicting seasoned pretzels that my mom made for her church's craft fair...the recipe is similar to this one. I'm supposed to bring this bag home "to share" with Satoshi over beer (I better pack it into my suitcase and not into my carry-on in order to share...ahem!)

Despite the hot and humid weather, there was a guava jam session and cookie baking session for my mom's church craft fair which included these thumbprint cookies...only in Hawaii could the jam/jelly filling be guava!

NOH seasoned mixes, they had a portuguese sausage mix listed on their website and I FINALLY found it at a store (Marukai)! I can't wait to try this when I get back to Japan.

Vosges' dark version of their bacon bar...since I loved their milk chocolate version, I can't wait to try this one. UPDATE: this is good, the 62% dark chocolate makes the bar not as sweet as the milk chocolate version. I love the chewy bacon bits and hits of smoked salt here and there.

Dark chocolate covered creme de menthe Altoids...sounded interesting, hope they are good.

LU 70% Petit Ecolier cookies...while reading the "Trail of Crumbs", this brand of cookie was mentioned in the book. The other day while at the market, I happened upon them (not the exact same cookie in the story, but)...mmm, just the same!

My first trip to Yogurtland...they opened a shop nearby and BFF and I had a blast! putting different flavors and toppings...I tried a smudge of the Nutter Butter/Dutch Chocolate mix and a smudge of the Double Cookies & Cream/Coffee mix, PLUS crushed Reese's PB cups & sliced almonds as toppings.

The thing I like about this shop is that you can put as much or as little of yogurt and/or toppings as you like, you just have to pay by the ounce....at US$.39 per ounce, my damage...only US$1.78 (with tax). I wish they had smaller sized cups. They recently teamed up with Tokidoki (an Italian brand with a Japanese name) and have these cute cups and spoons. I also looked on their site and found out they have 2 shops in Okinawa. (actually by the time I posted this, I've actually gone a total of two times!! The second time around the damage was a little higher, but so deliciously worth it!)

While in the Menehune Mac Boutique at Ala Moana, I bought a locally made shirt by idkwhat2wear (I'm so tech-unsavvy, I had to look up what "idk" stood for (it means..."I don't know")...they need to add the word "dark" to this, but this shirt pretty much sums up everything about me (don't you think??)

This tiny bird, which I think is a type of finch, has such a nice chirp. The photo is kinda blurry because I had to take it from a distance and quickly...these guys are fast!!

Bubble Shack soaps, which I found at our new Target store, I've bought some in the past from Down to Earth, and loved their fragrances! The chocolate malasada soap smells good enough to eat!

An extra-dark chocolate Lindt Lindor truffle..saving this for the plane ride home...along with...

these (candies) and this (bag of chips)...

So, it's back to Japan, hopefully in time to catch some fall foliage, and maybe some chestnuts...

I'm glad I was able to help out with my family and thankful that Satoshi was kind enough to let me come home on such short notice.

Even though I didn't get a chance to play too much while I was here, I still made the most out of my visit, my suitcase is stuffed and I can't wait until my visit next year!

Talk to you again from the other side of the world!

Nanding's Bakery
94-216 Farrington Highway
Waipahu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.678.0828

Bob's Bar-B-Que
1366 Dillingham Boulevard
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.842.3663

Yogurtland (UPDATE: as of 3/2012 this location is now closed)
94-1254 Kaahumanu Street
Aiea, Hawaii
Phone: 808.488.5004

hawaii re-visits

After seeing Deb's post, and remembering several conversations with Satoshi about our elementary schools, I went back to check mine out on one of my morning walks.

There was more fencing around the school than I remembered...lots more grass and trees too.

The jungle gyms and monkey bars were gone and replaced by these huge plastic castle looking things.

I remember in kindergarten climbing on the jungle gym at recess only to be pushed off by an older boy...a 6th grade boy came to my rescue.

The steps weren't as high as I remembered...the cafeteria was all lit up, brought back memories of the delicious school lunches we used to eat for only a quarter (is that dating myself? maybe)...shoyu chicken, meatloaf, cole slaw and those addicting shortbread cookies.

I remember once an obnoxious guy put his hand on the shortbread cookie on my tray and said, "you gonna eat that?" figuring that I would hand the cookie over to him because he was already touching it, but I told him, "yeah, I am!" (though I think I threw it out after because...he touched it...)

With the cost of things these days, they are talking about raising the price of the school lunch from $1-something to $2-something...way more than what I remember paying in school, but still pretty reasonable....I wonder if the quality of the lunch is still as good too? hope so.

Seeing the field brought back memories of running barefoot for track practice...playing kick ball....May Day performances. Growing up having grass under my feet during recess, I was really shocked when I saw the kids in Japan running on hardened sand...not one blade of grass.

Down the hill from my elementary school was the recreation center, run by the City Parks and Recreation. It was here that my dad taught after school classes...stitchery, ukulele, archery, tumbling, seed craft. I think most of these classes were free of charge. My mom used to sign me up for these classes (cheap baby sitting, yeah? maybe). It was a good way for me to spend time with my dad and not have to go home to an empty house.

When my brother started school, my dad was moved to another park, so we used to walk home together with some of the other neighborhood kids and were "latch-key" kids then.

After finishing our homework, we were allowed to go outside to play. My brother usually dilly-dallied with his homework, so it was rare if he got outside (which is why he got really good grades). Me, I rushed to do my homework so I could get out of the house (I got so-so grades).

To this day, I still remember my first day of kindergarten, maybe because it was so traumatizing. I remember somehow spilling my milk into my pork and beans and the lunch mother (a volunteer mother who came to watch us while the teachers ate) Mrs. Fermin, told me to "fish out" the wieners and eat them for lunch...it was traumatizing then but now a good memory.

I don't remember what was taught in the classes, and have forgotten some of the other student's names (sorry!) but what I do remember about elementary was that it was mostly stressless times...good times.

do you know where?...

Back in 2006, my friend PT introduced me to this game.

A black and white map of the world. When you press "start", the name of 20 various countries come up one by one, you need to click onto the correct country within several seconds to get points. Everytime you click the wrong country or run out of time, it minuses points, then it moves onto the next country. When you go through the random 20, it gives you your score.

When I first tried the game, I got 22 out of 100 (I think 100 is the most points you can get)...sucky!

You can actually study by clicking onto various countries before pressing start.

So, everyday, I try to play this game about 2 or 3 times and nearly 3 years later...I got this rare score. (Of course I took a photo of the screen, no one would believe me, right??)

If you have some time to kill, or want to know where Togo is, check out this game.

Another week flew by, have a nice weekend!

maruichi shokudo

I've passed this place many times when I've walked from the Ikeda station back to my home.

On weekdays, I've seen many office people going into this place. Though I have never seen a line out the door, for this place to attract office people it must be good. Why? Because this place is quite a distance away from the station, kind of out of the way.

The shop is tiny only 17 seats. Their sign says that they are Cantonese but they serve Szechuan mabo tofu...hmmm

In fact, their specialty is the mabo tofu.

You could order anything from their menu but you should order the mabo tofu as a donburi (bowl).

Choose your heat. Amakuchi (mild), chu-kara (semi-hot), karai (hot). Satoshi and I chose semi-hot. It comes in a heated stone bowl, bubbling and sizzling. (can you see the steam shooting out?)

The rice is on the bottom, getting koge (burnt), a nice kind of burnt though...the grains of rice get hard and chewy, definitely a good kind of stick to your teeth.

Semi-hot is actually perspiry hot...you don't feel it until after you swallow and it is an addicting kind of heat. I wonder if the lady sitting behind of Satoshi finished her order, she ordered hot...

No matter how long you blow on your food though, I can almost guarantee you will burn your tongue...I did.

For 750 yen (about US$7.50) the mabo tofu comes with a salad and egg drop soup...definitely worth it.

We'll be back.

Maruichi Shokudo
3-11-6 Jonan
Ikeda, Osaka
Phone: 072.750.2212
Lunch: 12:00-14:00, Dinner: 18:00-24:00
Days closed unknown (call ahead)

odds & ends

Cleaning out some photos from my computer...there are just not enough days in a month to blog about everything...

Soy milk cheesecake by Yamaki in Ikeda. The patissier studied under Gerard Mulot. This was fluffy, light...delicious.

A stroopwafel covered with milk chocolate by Cake Box Cafe...ooey gooey goodness.

The rice flour donut from Mister Donut. Covered with arare (rice cracker) bits. The bits were stale and the donut very chewy, like mochi (rice cake), I think I'll stick to the regular donuts.

Goulibeur's Broye du Poitou Gallete, a rich butter cookie.

Berry's pudding roll. A slice of flan inside of a swiss roll...very different, Satoshi said it was delicious.

Sushi party platter from Carrefour...the rice was a bit dry but the fish was good. And for 1380 yen (about US$13.80) it was a great buy. I think there were 12 pieces or 14 pieces.

Prunotto's Italian chestnuts with strawberries and some yogurt. I put some yogurt onto a paper towel to take out some of the moisture then spooned some of the chestnuts which were soaked in lemon and honey, and added some sliced strawberries. It was a nice dessert.

Tofu chige, using the kim chee chige recipe substituting the meat with tofu..I used a grilled tofu. It was spicy and delicious.

Loacker, an Italian brand, Noir tortina, a hazelnut cookie covered with gianduja & dark chocolate.

Haagen Dazs' newest flavor, blueberry cheesecake...blueberry compote, vanilla ice cream, cream cheese and cookie...I was hoping it would taste more like cheesecake but it was more vanilla ice cream with a hint of cream cheese.

Earl grey croissant. I loved the earl grey flavor, it wasn't bitter and there was a sweet glaze.

Byron Bay's fig and pecan cookies. These are addicting and reduced fat too.

Kobutaman by Four-rue. Kobuta means piglet and butaman is a type of pork bun. The butaman that I usually find at the convenience stores use a lot of dried shiitake in their filling. But I really liked this version. It used a lot of kikurage (wood ear) and 5 spice. Plus it was really cute. The eyes were black beans.

Boba tea by Azumi. It said naicha on the side but it also said it was an autumnal darjeeling assam blend. I liked the tapioca too, nice and chewy.

prune mui

So with all this dreary weather, I've been craving comforts of home. One of which is prune mui.

Prune mui is a local favorite in Hawaii. It is a preserve of dried fruits, the sweet and sour sauce is addicting and most times you eat the fruits with your fingers, licking them after putting some into your mouth (well, I usually do this). I tried the recipe from Hawaii State Representative Roy Takumi's pamphlet.

2 packages prunes
2 packages apricots
1 package wet li hing mui
1 package dried lemon peel

Sauce:
1/2 teaspoon Hawaiian salt
1/2 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice
1 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup lemon juice
3 teaspoon whiskey

Combine all sauce ingredients and mix well. Add the fruits to the sauce and shake.

NOTES: I only had some prunes, so I bought some apricots (actually I like the apricots more than the prunes), but didn't have the li hing mui (chinese preserved plums) or dried lemon peel, so I bought some candied yuzu (citron). Another recipe indicated letting the mixture sit for a week, so that is what I did. This recipe didn't have much liquid so, I kept turning the bottle upside down and laying it on its side to get everything coated. I think it would have been better if the yuzu wasn't candied, it made it a little sweeter than I like.

Still, it was ono (delicious).

hakata ippudo

Last Autumn, we found out that our favorite ramen shop, Momofukutei would close and that Ippudo would take it over.

We went once in December, but I didn't have my camera. We were glad to see that they kept the two types of ramen that were Momofukutei's specialties. Momofukutei's had a point card but with the new management they changed their system, so to "make up" for doing away with the point card, we received a card for one free ramen.

Last month, we went to eat the free ramen, but couldn't get in, so we went back a couple of days later, when Satoshi was off on a weekday.

Satoshi had their Akamarukasaneaji--a huge bowl filled with tonkotsu soup, a little red miso (I think), green onions, kikurage (wood ear) and half of a soft boiled egg.

He also ordered their mentaiko gohan. This comes with a nice serving of mentaiko (salted pollack roe with chili), rice, nori (laver sheets) and tsukemono (pickles).

We shared an order of their hitokuchi gyoza (bite sized pot stickers). Actually, I just ate two pieces and Satoshi ate the rest. This comes with a little dab of chili paste.

I ordered the Ippudo karakamen--this is a tonkotsu soup mixed with a spicy soup. You can choose the level, and I chose the least spicy. It is an addicting flavor which starts off a little sweet then gradually starts burning everything including your lips...

The toppings (char siu and soft boiled egg) come on the side with some spiced rice and nori (laver sheets). The rice is seasoned with chili, but a different type from the broth.

If you weren't perspiring from the soup, you will be after eating the rice.

So, far we've enjoyed what we've tried from here. We'll be back.

Hakata Ippudo
2-10 Masumi-cho
Ikeda, Osaka
Phone: 072.750.3129

kfc

Not sure if the Japanese still call KFC, "Kentucky", but on a recent trip there, they had a new item called karauma. A slang term putting kara = karai (spicy) and uma = umai (tasty, delicious) together.

This chicken is fried crispy with ninniku (garlic), shoyu (soy sauce) and togarashi (chili pepper).

The meat is very tender and juicy and the spiciness kicks in after a few bites-- enough to make me cough, in a addicting kind of way.

I wish their meals came with the cole slaw instead of fries, it wouldn't be that much more healthy but oh well, it was still very delicious.

recently...

The highs have been quite low...10C-12C (50F-53F), the lows have been really low 0C-4C(32F-39F), while we had some sleet, Kyoto had some snow.

Yesterday, Oahu had a major power outage, Satoshi had to work overtime since many flights were delayed going to Hawaii. He also went to work this morning to check on things.

I noticed I had some photos that I hadn't posted about, so I wanted to tell you about what I've been eating recently...I made a stir fry with sweet potato, mushrooms, carrots, green beans and kim chee...simply delicious.

Recently at Anri, I have been addicted to these french breads with beef stew in them. The bread is the size of a fist and there is beef stew and a little cheese.

Another version of this is with chunky potato salad in it...also addicting.

Recently I made a kinpira using gobo (burdock), carrot & sweet potato. I had some leftover soup from making udon, so after stir frying the veggies in some oil, I added the soup, a little sugar, some sesame oil. Since I couldn't find my chili flakes, I sprinkled some chipotle flakes....It was delicious.

Recently at Starbucks I tried their Dark Chocolate Cherry Mocha and their chocolate biscotti...meh...too much fake cherry flavor in the mocha and the biscotti was just so-so.

On another trip to Starbucks, I tried their plain biscotti with the Chocolate truffle cocoa. I liked this biscotti better, there were lots of almonds and bits of chocolate in it.

Recently, there was saikyozuke saba. Saikyozuke is when fish is soaked in Kyoto white miso. Before baking in the oven, you need to wipe some of the miso off (to prevent it from burning).

Though, even if I wiped the miso off, it still burned. At least it was only the skin of the fish that burned.

Recently, there was a muffin sized pannetone from my student, since my neighborhood German sweet shop ran out of stollen, this was the closest I got to something Christmas-y. (Thank you!)

Recently there was a Chinese bento from Daiei...mabo nasu, sweet sour pork & chinjaorosu (sorry, I don't know the english name for this dish--bell peppers with some beef or pork)...320 yen (about US$3.20)

Recently I made some fajitas using only veggies and the mexican lime olive oil....delicious.

What have you been eating recently?