hawaii sights

The clouds were kinda funky the past week...

Wispy ones last Sunday.

Then on Monday, they looked like a stone walkway.

And still on Monday, they looked like someone shook them up...

Fun, yeah?!

clouds

Last weekend, the clouds looked like this.

Autumn is definitely here.

We have a 3-day weekend here. No plans, hopefully we'll be able to get out and about.

I hope you all have a nice weekend.

summer is here

It's been really hot the past couple of days...but, I am thankful that there is a slight breeze.

And no I am not talking about the type of "breeze" we have in Japan where the air circulating is just hot and sticky.

No, these are trade winds (or trades for short), cool and makes everything a little bearable.

Someone once told me that when you see wispy clouds it means the season is changing...with all the weird weather we were having a couple weeks ago, summer must now be here.

hawaii sights

Let's just take a breather from food (just a day)...actually there was cookie baking yesterday (I was just the helper, mom did all the real work).

It was hot yesterday (84F/28C) with some passing showers so it was a little humid, sitting in our living room, I noticed these clouds.

Once outside, it was cooler. Have been loving the weather here. I wish I could bottle the tradewinds to bring back with me to humid and hot Japan.

Only a couple more weeks and my "vacation" will be over....better take it all in.

buta no kakuni

Awhile back I made rafute, the Okinawan version of braised pork belly, what the Japanese call buta no kakuni. For last night's dinner I made the Japanese version. This dish takes some time to prepare, but at least it isn't humid and you don't have to stand near the stove the whole time while it is cooking.

I thought this recipe that I found on the internet was interesting because it said it was purely Japanese but uses cinnamon.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try it: Serves 4
translated from doron.allabout.co.jp

500g pork belly (about a pound)
1 leek (only the green part)
1 teaspoon grated ginger
5 tablespoons kurosu (dark vinegar)
4 tablespoons sake (rice wine)
700cc water (about 3.5 cups)
6.5 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 star anise
1/2 stick cinnamon
1 tablespoon honey
neri karashi (Japanese mustard)

1. Cut the pork into 1.5 inch wide pieces making sure to have some fat on top of each piece.
2. In a pot, put the water, ginger, vinegar, leek and sake. Add the pork and heat on medium heat for 20-30 minutes scraping off the scum that forms on the top.
3. Take out the leek and add the shoyu, sugar, star anise and cinnamon stick. Simmer for an hour or until the liquid evaporates to half.
4. Add the honey and turn heat to high, let caramelize.
5. Take out star anise and cinnamon stick. Serve with neri karashi and some steamed green veggies, like spinach and lots of rice (be sure to put some of the gravy onto your rice too).

NOTES: After adding the shoyu and other ingredients, I simmered the pork for about an hour and a half. This was really tender and delicious. Satoshi liked it also.

Monday morning when I opened the curtains this is what I saw. Doesn't it look like a whirlpool?

odds & ends

Gosh, here I was ready to fly into Autumn and the weather decides to go backwards back to Summer. The past couple of days have been so hot and miserable!

So many different things that I want to post about, so I thought I would just round up some of them into one post.

Owariya's soba-ita. Thin, crisp wafer's made from sobako (buckwheat flour). We got these from Satoshi's mom awhile back, and I remembered to take a photo of them just before we finished them off. The main shop in Kyoto serves soba, hopefully we get to try this place one day.

A quick lunch of yakitori from Toriya. Zuri (which I think is the liver of the chicken), is chewy and crunchy at the same time, momo (the thigh area) and tsukune (a meatball-like concoction with minced chicken, green onion and part of the cartilage). I also like nankotsu (cartilage).

I was surprised at the different clouds. The one in the background looks lit up, while the rest were in darkness.

A rice farmer in Okayama prefecture decided to spice up his fields and show off his love for the Hanshin Tigers (a baseball team in Osaka (Satoshi's favorite)) with the team logos made from rice plants. Apparently he started doing this the year that the Tigers took League champs in 2003. Ever since, he's continued with the help of hundreds to help him plant and harvest the rice. He uses different varieties to achieve the different colors and donates the rice that is harvested to the Hanshin Tigers' team. (when the rice is about to be harvested, the logos turn a golden yellow with black--the teams colors.)

My new strawberry plants. I found them in the shopping arcade yesterday for only a 100 yen each (about US$1)! I didn't know this until recently, but the fruit come straight from the flower (that yellow center will turn into a strawberry).

another kind of latte

I know I've been whining endlessly about how scorching it is outside, but inside with the a/c on, brrr...it is cold.

I wanted to use up some matcha (green tea) & kinako (powdered soy bean) that I had, so I looked in a cookbook and found a recipe for matcha milk (green tea milk). I used the recipe and substituted the matcha with the kinako/matcha mixture.

Kinako Matcha Latte adapted from "Onomimono wa ikaga desu ka?"

Put one teaspoon of the matcha/kinako mixture into a pot with one tablespoon of sugar and one cup of milk. Heat. Using a milk frother, whip it up. Add a dash of the matcha/kinako powder on top for decoration. (If you don't have kinako, just make this with matcha only.)

The froth wasn't as thick as when you froth up milk alone, but it was really easy, a little sweet (not as sweet as Starbucks chai latte, which is way too sweet for me) and tasted wonderful.

Changing the subject, as I was cooking pasta for my dinner, I noticed the clouds outside.






When I looked in this direction, the clouds looked like they were bursting out from one point.



And these just looked huge--something I have never seen before.

Hope you are beating the heat where you are!