odds & ends

On Sunday when we went galavanting around Minoo Park, I saw a sign for the city's Nanokaichi. Actually, this "festival" is more of a get together for merchants to sell their wares around the Minoo station and in parts of the Minoo Park on the 7th day of each month. Since I had never gone to this, I decided to check it out yesterday.

To my disappointment though, there wasn't much happening. I guess with summer, it was too hot, plus the 7th fell on a weekday.

Oh well...since I was at the park already, I walked to the Insectarium and paid to check out the butterflies (again). I was shocked to see that many of them had wings that looked like they were ripped or eaten. Still, having them fly around was a nice feeling.

The Minoo river was quite high. We've been having heavy rains during the afternoons. It has been quite scary too, with loud booms of thunder and bolts of lightning. But, the downside to this is that even with all the rain, the humidity still lingers. This is one part of Japan's summer that I cannot get used to.

I noticed this big tile on top of a shrine. Scary, yet comical looking face with butterfly tiles "fluttering" around it.

Not many flowers during this time of year, though I found these portulaca (sp?) in pots along the path.

Since there wasn't much else to do, I decided to stop into my favorite cafe for a cappuccino. I actually debated as to whether I should go for an iced cappuccino. But, I didn't know if the iced version would have the cappuccino art...so I went for the hot cappuccino...I am so crazy! I think it was at least 35C (95F) outside with thick humidity...the crema was so good though, I scooped it up with the spoon like it was fluffy pudding.

Satoshi called me as I was enjoying my cappuccino. He needed a document from the city office for work. It was a good thing he caught me while I was still in the neighborhood. I popped into the office and showed them his text message. The city worker helped me fill out the form and within a couple of minutes I paid 200 yen (about US$2) for the document and was out of there.

As I walked to the train station, I noticed a railroad sign. Something I have never seen in Hawaii, though maybe they do have some around. I don't drive in Japan, but I think this sign is there to warn drivers that there is a railroad crossing ahead, though they aren't at all the railroad crossings.

Wednesday night, I made chirmol. I like this recipe, it tastes like a fresh salsa, mixed with the flavors of lomi lomi salmon (without the salmon). Anyway, I had bought a can of jalapenos and put one pepper into the chirmol. Delicious and there is a kick that leaves fire on your lips.

Thursday night, with the leftover chirmol, I made a taco salad for dinner and used the chirmol as salsa. I also tried a flatbread recipe, but I want to tweak it a bit before sharing. It was too salty and too sticky.

Here are the crumbs on mac nut ice cream. Actually, I think the shortbread would stand out more with vanilla ice cream. The mac nuts kind of overpowered everything. Ooh, and I actually found another big piece within the crumbs! (can you see it in the back of the ice cream mountain?)

Do you think these little plants are tomato or okra? I threw some tomato and okra into this pot and all of a sudden this is what has come up. I'm hoping for okra, though I have a feeling it is tomato.

Sorry for the rambling...It's Aloha Friday here...hope you have a great weekend!

sudachi

It is sudachi (similar to limes) season here. When I buy sudachi, they only come with two or three in a bag. But what would you do when you receive a bag of 15 or more? Here are the ways that I used them...

You can usually find them with grilled sanma (saury). I saw some sanma in the market the other day, but it was a bit too scary looking--it had the head on and everything still inside. I don't know how to grill it or clean them, so I went with what I know...salmon. I served it with daikon oroshi (grated long white radish) and a splash of shoyu.

I drizzled some onto my yakitori (chicken skewers)...very refreshing.

And then one day I was craving for Mexican food, which isn't readily available here. I looked in "Barbecue Bible" by Steven Raichlen. And found a great recipe for fajita rub. I cut the recipe down and "marinated" sasami (chicken breasts) for about 3 hours. Then in a pan with some oil, I pan fried them.

Fajita rub adapted from "Barbecue Bible"
1 tablespoon paprika
2.25 teaspoon coarse salt
1.5 teaspoon dried chipotle
12 grinds fresh pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

But what has fajitas got to do with sudachi? Well, awhile back, Tea, introduced me to chirmol. (Thank you!) She called it chimol, but the recipe I found, also in "Barbecue Bible" called it chirmol. Anyway, since the recipe called for limes, it was a perfect opportunity for me to try chirmol and to use some sudachi. I was a bit bummed because the jalapenos I had in my fridge had gone slimey and moldy...eww. And I didn't have much cilantro. Check out Tea's photo of chirmol, it looks way more appetizing.

Chirmol adapted from "Barbecue Bible"
12 cherry tomatoes, cut into fourths
1/4 onion, diced
handful of cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon vinegar
2 sudachi (squeezed)
several shakes of salt
5 grinds of pepper

Still, on my chicken fajitas, the bursts of lime mixed with the bite from the onions, the heat from the chicken cooled by the ripe tomatoes really satisfied my craving for something Mexican.

And then I made ponzu. Ponzu is citrus flavored soy sauce condiment. The recipe that came with the sudachi mentioned soaking the sudachi with konbu (kelp), katsuo bushi (bonito flakes), shoyu (soy sauce), vinegar and mirin (sweet rice wine) for 2 weeks then straining everything and using the liquid. I found another recipe on the net in which you just boil everything and then strain it into jars and use right away. So, that is what I did. Instead of the 5 sudachi that the recipe called for, I used all 10 that were left. Talk about pucker your mouth sour! But I think it will be good on fish or tofu (soy bean curd) or on steak with daikon oroshi (grated white radish)--just a little ponzu will do.

Here's the recipe if you have some limes on hand and would like to try this. If your limes are big, you might want to put the juice of half a lime in first and add more. It should taste refreshing and not very salty.

250 cc koikuchi shoyu (dark shoyu) (about 1.5 cups)
250 cc usukuchi shoyu (light shoyu) (about 1.5 cups)
350 cc komesu rice vinegar (about 1.75 cups)
1 to 2 sheets of dashi konbu (thick pieces of kelp to make stock) each about 15 cm long.
1 small bag of katsuo bushi (bonito flakes)
5 sudachi (limes), juiced
100 cc mirin (sweet rice wine) (about .5 cups)

Bring everything to a boil and then turn off the heat. When cooled, strain and transfer to glass jars and store in refrig. Use on fish, chicken, meats, tofu (soy bean curd), actually anything that you would use regular shoyu (soy sauce) on. You can even mix it with some sesame oil or use it as is for a nice Asian dressing.

NOTE: I didn't have the two kinds of shoyu so I used what I had on hand, usukuchi shoyu. I also didn't use the sheets of konbu, I had the powdered version, so I used 1 stick of that.

Enjoy!