happy halloween

Wow, it is the end of October already.

Which means today is Halloween.

I am planning to "re-use" this idea from a couple years back for tonight's dinner..."scary" sushi.

Hope you all have a safe & delicious Halloween.

halloween eats

What did you do on Halloween? Satoshi had plans, so I partied alone...

I "made" myself some scary sushi...I got the idea from a commercial for sushi vinegar. Their version was jack o'lanterns.

I bought the sushi from the market and just added the "scary" eyes and mouths. I made jack o'lanterns with salmon and ghosts with ika (squid).

I made some guacamole. I didn't have jalapenos so I just sprinkled some of that habanero salt that Kirk gave us...so good!

I munched on some Pop popcorn in their Rogue Blue (cheese) flavor...really cheesy and quite piquant.

For dessert I had a mont blanc which had purple sweet potato and pumpkin puree in place of the chestnut topping.

And for something to drink, this white beer by Baladin, an Italian maker. Super citrusy.

Hope you had a nice, safe Halloween.

happy halloween

Today is Halloween, hope you celebrate safely.

Satoshi has a drinking gathering with friends, so I'll be celebrating by myself...

Happy Halloween!

boo!

Saturday before Satoshi's German class, we stopped in at Hope de Est for something sweet.

Their creation, Ghost, is a chocolate cake, topped with cream and pumpkin puree, like a Mont Blanc.

I notice that with every year that passes, Japan is getting into Halloween more and more.

The whole thing is wrapped with a thin soft mochi...cute and tasty.

Not too sweet too...with coffees, 1210 yen (about US$12.10)

While I was waiting for Satoshi to finish his class, I went up to the rooftop where they have a sitting area and many gardens.

I found this cosmos...loved the reflection in the pool behind.

Have a great week!

Hope de Est
Lucua B1
Umeda, Osaka
Phone: 06.6151.1216
Open 10:00-22:00 UPDATE: this shop is no longer at this location

boo!

Today is Halloween. They don't do house to house trick-or-treating here (at least not in my neighborhood anyway), but slowly there are more and more decorating of houses and stores and the assortment of candies are also improving for this time of year.

I found this malted milk candy at the gourmet supermarket recently. It made me remember something that Bourgogne wrote in the comments about adding Milk Duds to popcorn.

So, after buying a bag of the malted milk candy, I then remembered that Milk Duds weren't malted milk candies but instead were chocolate covered caramels...sigh. Overall I was disappointed with the malted milk candy, it didn't have that scratchy texture in your mouth like Whoppers have. Still, I added it and chocolate covered kakinotane (spicy rice crackers that look like persimmon seeds) to freshly popped corn...delicious! The chocolate slightly melts while touching the hot popcorn, gets kind of messy and you gotta lick your fingers while eating everything...it is yet another addicting way to jazz up popcorn. (Thanks Bourgogne!)

Last week, my student gave me these delicious Halloween-y cookies...which are now long gone, right after I took the photo...gone. (Thank you!)

I'm not sure if it just the season for pumpkins or if Halloween is the reason that there are more foods with pumpkin around, though I think the former is probably the reason, but I found this foccacia that was loaded with pumpkin, eggplant, red bell pepper, onion and a little cheese...delicious!

Hope you have a safe but fun Halloween, if you celebrate where you are.