slice of life

Recently blog friend Rick (who no longer blogs) and his family were in Tokyo

One place they ate at was a food truck called Slice of Life in Harajuku, which does Texas BBQ

Since I wanted to try, I went after my physical therapy and was there about 45 minutes before they opened at 11:30

The owner was super quiet to the point of where I thought he was rude, no “hello”, or “irasshaimase” even after I said “konnichiwa”

His wife on the other hand at least said “irasshaimase” 

When they finally opened, I ordered the A5 wagyu brisket…2700 yen (tax included)

This comes with rice, and sides

On this day, the sides were shredded cabbage and what seemed like chili

Since I planned to eat this for dinner, I asked for no rice and they took 100 yen off my bill.

The brisket was super tender! but I thought the portions of the meat and sides were really skimpy

I also took a little of their coffee sauce and bbq sauce to try but the meat didn’t need sauce and the sauces overall seemed to be bland

The foreign guy behind me ordered the plate with 3 different items (pulled pork, brisket and burnt ends, I think) he paid 7800 yen (tax included)!

I hope they gave him more food

Meh, not worth the hype

children's day

Yesterday was Children's Day, a.k.a. Boy's Day so it was nice to be able to get together with my host-family's children.

5 of them ranging in ages from 11 to 3, talk about noisy and fun.

The weather was beautiful, sunny but not too hot.

After our bbq, we had to move because another family was reserved for the spot. I've noticed that Japan often has reserved areas for these types of things, which is good because you can't hog the place for the whole day.

It is good too because all you do is bring your own charcoal, they provide the grill & teppan (iron griddle) and then they take care of your hot coals at the end too.

Anyway, after lunch, we moved to another area of the park and this one was beautiful. The fuji (wisteria) were in full bloom.

The kids (and Satoshi) ran and played until their "batteries" were low, actually only Satoshi's battery was low. While some of us chatted and some of us napped.

It was a great way to spend time with my host-family and get out and about for Golden Week. (Thank you!)

I had no idea the full moon was being called the "super moon" but here is was at about 2-ish this morning.

I must say, it was pretty big and bright.

Hope to get out and about on the last day of Golden week.

b-b-q

We got together with my host family the other day.

They reserved a spot (for a fee) at Shiawase no mura (literally village of happiness). This is a huge complex with sporting facilities, a hotel, hot spring, camp area and barbecue area in Northern Kobe. (There are more facilities on this property, I'm just touching on a few.)

I am always surprised at Japanese "barbecue" because usually none of the fathers do the barbecuing like in the States.

Nope, it is usually the mothers that do EVERYTHING.

Another thing I am amazed at is that barbecue doesn't mean steaks or sausages (nor potato salad), it is usually yakiniku (which means grilled meat) which you use yakiniku tare, a spicy/sweet sauce to dip your grilled meat into.

Sometimes veggies are also grilled.

Most barbecue areas provide the grill, charcoal & food to be grilled (at a fee). This particular place provides the chairs and space, you need to rent the grill and other items you use. You bring your own food to be grilled and they help you take care of the hot coals afterwards.

I guess it had been awhile since I've seen fires started from "scratch". I remember my dad and uncle using newspaper, a little lighter fluid and matches to start the fire burning. I also remember that it usually took a LONG time to get the fire going.

Nowadays, in Japan, you line up your charcoal, which are not briquettes but actually look like burnt tree stumps, take out your gas burner and light the charcoal...fire started in 10 minutes or less!

One of the items you can rent is a large teppan (steel pan), perfect to make okonomiyaki or yakisoba (fried noodles)...we had both!

It was very windy, so we all had to hold onto our plates, but the weather was sunny and beautiful. Everything was delicious and it was nice to spend the day outside with my host family.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Shiawase no mura
14-1 Shimotanigami Aza nakaichiriyama
Kita-ku, Kobe
Phone: 078.743.8000

what? another election?

Well, it turned out that it was too hot and humid to go galivanting yesterday, but since I still needed some things for dinner, I did go grocery shopping while Satoshi went to his German class. The supermarket was packed! I guess everyone knows that it is a great place to cool off.

I decided to make a variation of the reisei pasta that I made the other day. Instead of tuna, I added tako(octopus), some lemon juice and lettuce. Very refreshing!




And for dessert, I made mini blueberry clafoutis. I used the same recipe I posted before, put some lemon zest into the batter and topped the clafoutis with lavender sugar. Heavenly!

Since there was nothing but election results on tv tonight (what? another election?)we were watching some DVDs--(can you believe Japan is having another election? At least the loud speakers during Kat's nap time were non-existent this time around.) Awhile back I told you about Li Hing popcorn which I picked up while I was home? Well, we finally got around to eating the next flavor that I picked up....Korean BBQ.

I was quite disappointed with this one. Somehow the flavor packet was weak and tasted mostly of furikake and arare. And why is it that the arare (rice crackers) that come with the furikake are always stale? I wonder if they get stale when you mix it with the butter? Maybe the packaging isn't very airtight. Either that or I'm spoiled with the fresh arare that I eat here. I have a feeling it might be the latter.

So back to the election, Satoshi says it is because the rest of the government do not like the current prime minister, so they are having an election to change the prime minister. Apparently whichever party wins, that political party gets to choose who will be the new prime minister. Satoshi says most times the very second the political party wins and chooses someone, the rest of the government wants to change the guy in charge. So someone chosen for 4 years could get kicked out half-way or several months into his term. Definitely not very good for world relations.

If you ask me, I think they have too many political parties in Japan, which causes a lot problems, kind of like when there are too many chefs in the kitchen? But since I can't vote here, I guess I can't grumble too much about it other than I wish they would do all of their elections in one swoop and stop using their loud speakers to campaign (especially during my nap time!)

Have a great week.

barbecue sauce

Living in Japan, I sometimes crave for barbecue sauce. Not the teriyaki kind, but "western-style" barbecue sauce. I finally decided to try a recipe from one of my cookbooks called "Barbecue Bible" by Steven Raichlen. Awhile back I had bought Jack Daniel's whiskey to make barbecue sauce, but never got around to doing it.

It turned out to be REALLY easy--mainly because I zapped the onion in my food processor.

Still House Barbecue Sauce from "Barbecue Bible" by Steven Raichlen

Ingredients:
1 cup Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey
1 cup ketchup
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup onion, very finely minced
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1.5 tablespoons Tabasco sauce
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke

Combine all the ingredients in a large, heavy nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce the heat and briskly simmer, uncovered, until richly flavored and slightly thickened, about 20 minutes, stirring from time to time with a wooden spoon.
Use right away or transfer to jars, cover, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.
The sauce will keep for several months.
Makes about 4 cups.

Note: I cut this recipe to 1/4 of the measurements because we didn't need 4 cups of sauce.

For tonight's dinner, I grilled then baked some pork chops and made some mashed potatoes and a salad.

This sauce is spicy but really good...think I'll try it on chicken next...

Enjoy your Superbowl parties for those of you in the States!!
Have a nice week.