doyo no ushi no hi

Yesterday was Doyo no Ushi no Hi, the day when everyone eats grilled unagi (eel) to build stamina for the heat of summer, which I've written about here.

Well, since I had planned for it to be raining from the typhoon and that maybe we wouldn't be able to get out of the house after our vaccines, this was our dinner last night...corned beef and cabbage.

The heat is pretty brutal this year too, so I'm sure we'll eat some grilled unagi in the weeks to come...

doyo no ushi no hi

Today is Doyo no Ushi no hi, the day when we all eat unagi (eel) for stamina to withstand the heat of summer. I've written about this in the past here.

The price of unagi, especially on this day, tends to be quite pricey.

So, I was happy to find 2 good-sized unagi for 1680 yen (plus tax).

Just before dinner, I'm going to make my own kabayaki sauce using this recipe.

If you can't find unagi where you live or don't like it, you could also follow the recipe above to make an eggplant version.

I hope it is cooler where you are, we're melting over here!

Have a nice weekend.

trying to save the planet

With the price of food items and gasoline at premium prices, we've been trying to cut corners here are there, while trying to do our part to save the planet.

Last Saturday, Satoshi went to sell some books for me at Book-Off. They used to take English books, but not anymore. (insert pouty face) I think Book-Off still has a location in Hawaii. The books I gave him to sell were Japanese books that were burdening my book shelf.

Selling 11 books, we got 650 yen (about US$6.50), not much, but at least the books will go to new homes and we have a little less clutter.

Another thing we have started doing is bringing our own water wherever we go. These bottles made by SIGG, a Swiss brand, are durable. Can you believe I saw someone actually throw one of these bottles out in their trash because the paint was a little nicked! How wasteful was that?

We've gotten our burnable garbage down to 20 liters per pick up day. Our burnable garbage gets picked up twice a week. Each person is allowed 10 liters per pick up.

I think they should do something about this dude though...he may be saving gasoline by not riding around in a car and shouting his issues, but he is noise pollution. I didn't think it was election time around here...

Anyway, we may not be totally "saving the planet", but doing a little is better than not at all.

Are you doing something to save the planet?

p.s. Remember I told you about making vanilla? Well, if you live in a place where the inside gets hotter or as hot as outside, like here, please put your vanilla into the refrig. I surfed the net and found out it should be kept in a dark, cool place. During the day, when we aren't at home, our apartment gets to about 36C (95F)!

p.p.s. Yesterday was Doyo no Ushi no Hi, the day when Japan eats unagi (eel) as a way to build stamina for the hot summer. This year, I put the kabayaki sauce on the rice, put the sliced unagi on top, some sliced tamagoyaki (rolled egg) & some sliced okra on top of that...it was good!

Hope you have a great weekend!

doyo no ushi no hi

Yesterday was doyo no ushi no hi (literally mid-summer day of the ox. It is believed that each part of the day follows the 12 zodiac signs, e.g. 1 o'clock to 3 o'clock is the ox, or something like this.), it is the day to eat unagi (eel) to build stamina to last the summer. You should have seen the shopping arcade and supermarket, unagi everywhere! (The fishmonger in the shopping arcade actually had part-timers come in to help grill the unagi!)

I was a bit leery about buying unagi though, there have been news articles in which the ones being imported from China are being raised inappropriately. I hope the Japanese supermarkets and vendors are labeling products properly, there have been incidents in the past where they change the label in order to sell items.

For example, when the B.S.E. (mad-cow) thingy was going on here, some supermarkets switched the labels for beef coming from the U.S. and labeled them as Australian or Japanese to get rebates from the government and also to make a sale. Another scary thing about this is that products, like cows and such can be imported as babies then raised on farms and as long as they have been in Japan for a year, they can be called "Made in Japan". And even though you are choosing local (Japan), the restaurants and bars may not.

Another scary thing that is going on here is that Japan is now exporting rice to China. With fears of reika (cool summer) this year, I hope the government has an ample stash for us in Japan, since part of reika comes shortages of rice. (Apparently, the last time for reika was 1993 and they had to import rice from Thailand)...I have a feeling though that they are just looking to make a quick buck and aren't thinking that far ahead.

Sorry, I got sidetracked...back to unagi, I personally don't like unagi. I think the first time I tried it, there were bones in it and the unagi was kind of oily tasting, not a good first experience.

Still, I try to eat it at least once during the summer, just to go through the motions, in hopes that it helps me survive the summer (believe me, I need all the luck I can get especially with Japan summers). Satoshi, on the other hand, loves unagi and every time we go to his parent's house they order this dish for us to eat. He always tells his mother, "Kat doesn't like unagi", but she always forgets and orders it and I force myself to eat it because I don't want to be rude.

So, I bought unagi yesterday. Cut off the tail and the head-like area and throw them out, they are too hard to eat. (The first time I bought unagi, I served Satoshi the head-like area and tail and he told me that I'm supposed to throw it out, who knew?)



Slice up the body of the unagi and put it into an omlette and serve on rice. Sprinkle some sansho (Japanese pepper) on top.

I feel more powerful already...