christmas eve and christmas day

How was your Christmas?

Our Christmas was very low key.

I saw this at the supermarket and had to copy.

Doesn't really look like the photo but I loved the idea, the recipe suggests using a balsamic vinegar dressing, but I used a lemon one instead to keep the baby mozz from turning black.

I baked some lamb chops in the oven for Christmas Eve dinner.

It came with a spice packet which had curry powder and other spices in it.

I followed the Meat Guy's directions on how to bake it in the oven....

Room temperature for 30 minutes then in a 200 C (400 F) oven for 20 minutes.

It wasn’t in the direction, but at 10 minutes, I flipped the chops.

This was so tender and flavorful, even after reheating it for Satoshi after he came home.

Christmas morning...super pretty sunrise.

I went to Daimaru to send some gifts for New Years to MIL and BIL since we will not be travelling.

I picked up this brioche chocolat from Daisy, a bakery from Saitama that has a shop inside the JR Tokyo Station.

This was so good, with chocolate crisps on top and lots of chocolate ganache inside.

Dinner was nibbles from RF1 and gateau chocolat from Maison Cacao which I also picked up inside of the JR Tokyo Station.

61% Colombian chocolate topped with cacao nibs...so rich but so good with a cabernet sauvignon from Maison Fortnant.

We don't really give each other presents anymore, but Satoshi surprised me with this little bottle of jam sandwich cookies and a tiny bouquet of gerbera and carnations.

I hope Santa wasn't quarantined and was able to visit you this year.

Have a nice week.

past couple of days

Hope you and yours have/had a very Merry Christmas.

We celebrated on Saturday and Sunday since Satoshi had to work today (it isn't a holiday here).

Saturday, after we did some o-soji (cleaning for the new year), we went out for dinner at Hillman.

Apparently this restaurant is from Singapore.

The reason I bookmarked this restaurant was because of their paper chicken which looked so good.

We tried their cilantro salad...super refreshing.

Paper chicken...succulent and tender pieces of chicken cooked in parchment.

Chili crab...super hard to eat (ask for spoons!) but so delicious.

The crab legs had lots of meat to them.

Mantou...steamed or fried slightly sweet pieces of dough...good with chili crab.

I liked the steamed version while Satoshi preferred the fried.

Mabo Tofu...the spices hit afterwards...pow!

All of these items came off of their half size menu and was the perfect portion size for us.

We also were there during their happy hour so our drinks (a sangria and 3 beers) were only 190 yen each.

Our meal came out to 4770 yen (tax included)...we'll be back.

Christmas Eve Day lunch was at Afternoon Tea.

I ordered the roast chicken and it was really delicious especially with all these roasted veggies.

Satoshi had their beef stew.

It was a nice and delicious lunch.

We bought some cakes from Rocket.

Satoshi had their mont blanc while I had their Marquise Chocolat.

Christmas Eve Dinner was an assortment of things...avocado maguro, chicken, smoked mackerel dip and crackers, nuts, porter cheese, cheese cookies, salad and we opened the bottle of Miraval.

We enjoyed the Miraval, it isn't too sweet nor too dry.

And the porter cheese was delicious too, especially if you enjoy porters.

Satoshi will be off in a couple of days, so I have some posts lined up.

Happy Holidays!

Hillman
1-7-30 Sonezakishinchi
Kita-ku, Osaka
Phone: 06.6346.5511
Dinner only weekdays: 17:00-24:00
Saturdays & Sundays 11:30-15:00 (lunch) 17:00-24:00 (dinner)

christmas eve dinner

Christmas Eve. Satoshi is working as I type this.

Usually on weekdays I think I've mentioned that we don't eat dinner together, the Eve was no exception.

My dinner started out with Anchor's Christmas Ale...dark and cinnamon-y. Different but I liked it.

Main dish was chicken fajitas.

I bought two grilled chicken breasts from the yakitori shop in our shopping arcade.

And used the veggies I had in my fridge.

Since the grilled chicken breasts had a slight shoyu sauce on them, I just heated them up.

For the veggies, I sauteed them in some oil and sprinkled some of Penzey's Arizona Dreaming seasoning (kinda tex-mex).

Then at the end I put the juice of 1 lemon and cooked until the liquid evaporated.

Yummy!

At about 22:00, Satoshi came home and while he had dinner, I had dessert, which I had picked up at Mior, a shop in our shopping arcade.

I had part of this Chocolat Noel.

Vanilla brulee, chocolate ganache....very rich...ack, too rich.

And part of this Gateau Rouge.

Strawberry mousse, pistachio mousse & some almonds...I liked this one better.

Tomorrow is Christmas Day, but it isn't a holiday here and Satoshi is scheduled to work.

Am wondering what to do during the day and what to do for dinner tomorrow.

christmas eve dinner

Yesterday, I met up with some of my beading friends and we had lunch in Umeda.

By the time we finished, it was mid-afternoon, definitely too late to gather ingredients to cook, so, I decided to buy something for our dinner.

There was quite a crowd trying to buy different foods also and man, the price for food on Christmas eve was pricey!

Since Satoshi probably wouldn't come home early, I decided to buy salads instead of chicken or something fried.

A roast beef salad and a spinach salad. (By the way, the price for chicken is so expensive you could probably buy a whole chicken (or two) for the amount they were charging.)

After buying dinner, I went upstairs to the sweets floor.

The counter which I bought these from, Hamburg, has a shop in Mikuni. (I've seen the shop from the train and often wondered what kind of shop it was, so I googled to find that it was a cake shop and that they have a counter at Daimaru Department store.)

This is what I bought for Satoshi...chocolat mont blanc. He said this was delicious, chocolate and marron (chestnut).

And this was the cake that I got for myself..mini bouche noel (mini yule log). For the size, this tiny cake had a LOT of cute decorations on it.

Total cost of our dinner...2904 yen (about US$29.04).

Oh and Santa actually came by early to bring me the iPhone3GS last week...one of first things I downloaded was Kalapana's "For You I'd Chase a Rainbow".

I hope Santa brought all you wished for. I'm meeting my friend for coffee today, it will be interesting to see what I can find for our dinner tonight.

A close-up of the cute decorations... UPDATE: Hamburg is no longer in Daimaru Umeda.

ho ho ho

(Photo taken in Kiddyland, near their Miffy store, the sign said "no touch" but didn't say I couldn't photograph it)...a Miffy macaron tower.

Today is Christmas Eve. In Japan, a special day to spend with your special someone. I've written about the eve here and here, check it out if you wish.

Yesterday was a holiday and we got together with my host-family. It was a very lively get together as their children's children are getting bigger. There was lots of home cooked food by my host-mom and lots of conversation.

It is at this time of year that I particularly miss our family gathering on Christmas Eve in Hawaii. Many families in the neighborhood getting together, bringing a dish or two. Catching up with each other. When we were little, the fathers of the neighborhood would take turns being Santa. And as we got older, we did family gingerbread houses.

Can you imagine, us putting "snow" (royal icing) on everything? We'd never even seen snow before (we were in Hawaii). Fun times all around.

For the past 3 days, my kitchen was "closed", in addition to our gathering with my host-family, Satoshi had his bonenkai get togethers .

I think I may end up buying dinner for us over the next couple of days. I know, sad, but since Satoshi is working, he probably won't be home in time to eat dinner with me.

So, from our house to yours, we hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

meri kurisumasu

"Meri Kurisumasu" as the Japanese say. If you are in Japan during Christmas, it may be a holiday in the States, but it isn't here. In fact, all the excitement takes place before the "Big Day".

Couples have dinner together on the Eve. Satoshi and I have done this a couple of times since moving to Japan, but there is zero ambience, especially if you go to a restaurant which is popular with the younger crowds, not to mention, the food is very overpriced.

There was one Christmas Eve dinner where Satoshi was sitting right across from me and we couldn't hear what the other was saying because of all the chatter.

Another thing that is overpriced during Christmas are the cakes. Outrageous prices for 6-inch or 8-inch cakes made by well-known pastry chefs!

So anyway, here is our Christmas tree. A gajumaru (banyan), I picked this up at the 100 yen store, maybe a year or so ago. And when I bought it, it was less than half the size, I even cut it once to see if it would stay small....look how big its gotten.

Since Christmas falls on a weekday this year, and Satoshi doesn't get the day off. We decided to have our Christmas dinner tonight.

I made some barbecue shrimp from a recipe that Nate gave me. (Thanks Nate!)

Barbecue Shrimp adapted from Ruth Chris' Steak House Waikiki Beach
10 shrimp peeled, deveined
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup sake
juice of one sudachi (lime)
2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
several shakes of Tabasco
several shakes of cayenne pepper
several shakes of paprika
10g butter

1. Wash shrimp, peel, discard shells.
2. Heat pan, add oil, cook shrimp until just done.
3. Remove shrimp, add sake, reduce volume by 1/2.
4. When sake is reduced by 1/2, worcestershire, tabasco, cayenne pepper & paprika.
5. Shake pan well, cook 1 min., reduce heat to low.
6. Add butter to pan.
7. Add shrimp back, toss well to coat w/ butter & heat.

The shrimp was delicious, very tasty with a little kick from the chilies and went nicely with our tender, wagyu steak. I also tried making a matcha (green tea) yule log cake but that didn't work out, so it turned into trifle. Still, we had a nice dinner and I have lots of dishes to wash....

Hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas! Tomorrow is a holiday...the observance of the Emperor's birthday.
(photo taken at Herbis Ent in Umeda)

ho ho ho....bah humbug...sigh

It is Christmas Eve. Satoshi had to work. He also has to work tomorrow, Christmas Day.... Christmas, what is that? I grew up celebrating Christmas with my family, having dinner with family and friends, but in Japan it is different.

Christmas is for couples. Restaurants have expensive romantic dinners for two. Last year, we went out for a nice French dinner. The price of cake also goes up. Can you imagine paying $40 for an 8-inch round cake? I can't, so I usually make some kind of dessert instead of buying.

Here is a picture of our tree.

In Japan, they don't sell freshly cut ones, so for our first Christmas I bought one in a pot. That one died after 3 years, so this is the one we've had for the past 2 Christmases.

Anyway, because of a flight delay or something, Satoshi called to say he would be late, so dinner was my usual "table for one"--I guess I should be thankful that he called early enough for me to eat at a decent time.

I started off with some olives and cheese...one of the cheeses was interesting with bits of almonds. It really went well with the Yalumba 2004 Shiraz Viognier--a dry red with hints of cinnamon and spices.

A filet and baby leaf lettuce with bistro-style vinaigrette, a recipe I saw on Bean and Plum Discover the World (this blog no longer exists) and mashed turnips with olive oil, salt and pepper.

And for dessert a little cup of chocolate pudding infused with Republic of Tea's Green Earl Greyer (a green tea with bergamot oil) tea--I actually intended to make truffles, but the ganache was too soft, so now it is a pudding... strawberries and a slice of cheese cake by Marutoya, from my host-sister, Tomoko, she is a foodie too and loves to order food items from different places around Japan. The cheese cake reminded me of New York style cheese cake with a nice cookie crust.

I guess while I'm feeling sorry for myself, I'll have another glass of wine while I wait for Satoshi to come home.

Merry Christmas Everyone!