this week

Last Wednesday, I tried making nitsuke for the first time.

Nitsuke is when you simmer a protein (mainly fish) in a sweetened shoyu based sauce.

I was surprised at how fast, tasty and easy it was to do.

If you'd like to try making this here is the recipe I adapted from the internet.

Kinmedai (splendid alfonsino) Nitsuke (simmered in sweetened shoyu sauce) : 2 servings : adapted from several recipes on the internet
2 pieces kinmedai, scaled, rinsed
1/2 cup sake (rice wine)
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
2 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 nub ginger, cleaned and sliced

Place an "X" on the the skin of the fish, be careful not to cut all the way through
In a pot or pan, put all the sauce ingredients in and bring to a boil
Add the fish and turn down the heat to medium
Cover with a drop lid and cook for 10 minutes
Remove the drop lid turn the heat down to low and spoon the sauce over the fish for 5 minutes
Serve and enjoy!

NOTES: so easy, tasty and easy! Pretty sure you can change the type of fish and also adjust the amount of sugar to your liking.
Serve this with lots of rice! I will definitely be making this again.

We ordered our first CSA (community supported agriculture) box which arrived on Friday.

I learned about Tabechoku from a television show called "7 Rule".

The television show introduces the many Japanese working women and shares their 7 rules on life and work.

On a particular episode, they introduced the owner of Tabechoku which introduces farmers to customers and cuts out the middle men (all the red tape organizations) and gives the farmers more profits.

The prices are a little higher than what you would find in the supermarkets, but the freshness of the produce cannot be beat.

The farm we ordered from, Ogawa Farm is located about an hour drive from Kumamoto city in Kyushu.

Apparently they use goats to "weed" and "fertilize" their veggies.

We ordered their medium sized veggie box and it came with 7 different veggies...bok choy, spinach, carrot, cherry tomatoes, baby leaf, onions and garlic scapes (which I had originally thought were called garlic sprouts from the translation from Japanese to English).

It was my first time to cook with garlic scapes...apparently they are not readily found at the markets, though I have seen them in Chinese dishes here.

On my first try, since it was our first time to try them, I prepared them simply by steaming them and we ate them as is....it was like eating garlicky green beans!

With the rest of them, I sauteed them with some thinly sliced beef and seasoned it with some oyster sauce and shoyu (soy sauce).

When we received the box, it was nice to also receive some pamphlets educating us about the area our veggies came from as well as a few ideas on how to use their produce.

One thing that Ogawa Farm had mentioned was that garlic scapes were not often found at the markets so I'm glad we got to try them, but just in case, will also keep an eye for them on my next grocery run...

With the bok choy, I stir fried it with some chicken, some of the carrots we received as well as some of the onion that was in the box. I added garlic and seasoned with shoyu (soy sauce) and oyster sauce.

We have the spinach, carrots and onions left to eat...I am happy with this box and will definitely order again from this farm when the season changes.

It's shakuyaku (Chinese peony) season...we were lucky to get the last two at our neighborhood flower shop.

Love how big they get when they bloom, like a hand with fingers splayed!....hard to believe the buds were only the size of a golf ball!

Too bad these don't have any fragrance though...still pretty to look at though.

Good news: The 2 washable masks for 1 household from the government arrived...It took about a month.

39 of the 47 prefectures in Japan have been released from the state of emergency and have been allowed to transition back to some normalcy.

Sad news: After saying they would give every household 2 masks, some people that received them saw hair and some discoloration on their masks...blah!

So, it was recalled and they had to examine "each one" before putting them in our mailboxes...sigh.

AND after I washed them...they are already falling apart...boo!

Tokyo was not one of the prefectures that were released, we still need to get our numbers under control.

Sadly, this year they will not open Mount Fuji to hiking.

Rainy season and humidity is coming...at least we are eating well.

Hope your week was a good one.

Stay safe.

kyushu fair

We shared this kuri (chestnut) sundae by a Kumamoto dairy at the Kyushu Fair being held at Hankyu Department Store.

Chestnut bits folded into the soft serve topped with two halves of a roasted chestnut.

We also came across a vendor from Oita prefecture selling fresh bambucha (huge) shiitake.

There were 3 of these in one styrofoam tray and we bought 2 trays.

The first time we cooked it in a non-stick pan then topped with a little butter and shoyu.

The second time was with a little shoyu and squeeze of sudachi (type of lime).

So good! and I'm glad we were able to help a little to get Kumamoto and other Kyushu areas get back on their feet after their natural disasters.

sending hugs

It's been 2 months since the tragic Kumamoto Earthquake, and they are still having aftershocks!

Thousands are still in shelters and/or living out of their cars.

They haven't been able to clear much of the debris and the "red tape" part of getting things moving forward seems to be endless and frustrating.

I found a tiny shop nearby that sells fruits and veggies from Kumamoto.

Even if we cannot visit the area right now, I hope by purchasing their produce it will help Kumamoto start moving forward.

Sending hugs to Kumamoto.

kyushu-oita & kumamoto

We had a nice 3-day weekend. Satoshi got to take a day off for his birthday, so we went to Kyushu.

Day 1: Our trip started on Saturday and we flew to Kumamoto. The weather was unfortunately rainy. We rented a car and headed towards the town of Aso--which is located inside of a big caldera. Surrounding the town of Aso are 5 mountains--Nekodake, Takadake, Nakadake, Kijimadake & Eboshidake. Inside of this caldera is an active volcano called Mt. Aso. The road to the crater and ropeways were closed to the public due to the weather, so we made our way back down the winding mountain road and went to look for lunch.

Lunch was at a cute little restaurant we found by accident called Linlin. They specialize in pizza and coffee. This older couple runs this restaurant out of their home. They have a beautiful garden and a wonderful view of the 5 mountains. The owner cures his own bacon and uses only mineral water for his pizza crust. The pizza was really tasty and everything was fresh.

After lunch we went to a lookout point called Daikanbo. This lookout point was great, you could see the 5 mountains. Actually standing at the top of this area it felt like you were at the top of the world. Really breathtaking view!

We then made our way to the inn--Yusai. This inn is located in an onsen (hot spring) area called Kurokawa. Kurokawa is a very luxurious area in the Kumamoto prefecture that has managed to keep commercialism out as much as possible. Our inn had a facelift done recently. The lighting is very soft but has a really nice style about it. There were about 6 hot springs within the facilities! As we walked around before dinner, we found a cute little pastry shop, Patisserie Roku...we shared a great cream puff.

Dinner was kaiseki style. If you've ever gone to a Japanese inn, you'll know that kaiseki style can be the most elaborate style (I think) of Japanese food. There are LOTS of little courses to try and taste as you can see on my Flickr album. We were so stuffed, it didn't help that after dinner, the hotel brought us a platter of fruits, compliments of the hotel...(thank you!)

Day 2: Breakfast was again kaiseki style--very good and filling! We checked out and made our way to Yufuin. Yufuin is a little town in Oita prefecture. This town was recently featured in a soap opera that Satoshi and I watched. We drove around and found the Yufuin winery. This winery is located on the outskirts of the town area, and they have a great view of Mt. Yufu. We bought a bottle of their Merlot and a bottle of their Gerwurtztraminer (sp?). We then dropped off our bags at the inn-Shoya no Yakata. This hotel was amazing! It is a huge property located at the foot of Mt. Yufu (Yufudake) and has many bungalows. We then headed for town to look for lunch. Luckily, we found parking and found a nice place to have soba (buckwheat noodles).

After lunch, we walked around the town. It was a bit weird, the map we had didn't really match a lot of times and we finally realized that the town was so small that it couldn't really be mapped! Like once when the information center told us to turn right, we realized that it wasn't the type of "turn right" that we had envisioned. I think it is kind of like when you are driving in the countryside in America and they say "turn left" when you see the Smith's mailbox, or something like that. Anyway, we found the cafe that I had looked up on the internet, B-speak cafe. This cafe is located inside of the Yufuin Art museum and they have one of the fluffiest rolled sponge cakes I've ever tasted!

After our dessert, we found another shop that I found on the internet called Kotokotoya. Kotokoto is the onomatopoetic sound of something simmering. This shop specializes in jams. I bought the Yuzu (citron) marmalade because Oita prefecture is known for their citrus fruits.

Dinner was at the inn again kaiseki style. Boy, was it filling. After dinner, our waitress quietly told us that they would be taking some of the guests to see hotaru (fireflies). We were happy to be asked and excited to see them. It was the very first time for me to see fireflies, as we don't have them in Hawaii.

Day 3: After a very large kaiseki style breakfast, we set out to check out the rest of the town of Yufuin. But after walking around a bit, we realized that we had seen the majority of the town the day before, so we set out to Beppu. On the way to Beppu, we heard about the irises being in bloom at a park near a lake called Kagurame. The park was so large and there were many iris, but on such a hot and humid day, everything seemed to wilt, even me!

Beppu is a town that has many onsen (hot springs). It is also known for its "tour of hell" called Jigoku meguri. This is 9 hot springs which are too hot to enter for bathing and located at different places around Beppu. It was interesting to see these hot springs, but with the weather being so hot and humid, the heat from these hot springs were a bit much for me.

Our last stop was to see the carvings of the Buddha and another demi-god on the side of a mountain. This was called Kumanomagaibutsu. We hiked in about 300m then came the "stairs" it is actually rocks which form a staircase that shoots almost straight up! Luckily they have a hand rail to climb up and to climb down....At first when I saw the "stairs" I told Satoshi that I would wait for him at the bottom, but then I got up the courage to climb the stairs and I was glad I did. It was definitely something to see. Too bad this older lady spoiled the tranquility of it all by saying really loudly, "is this it? this is what I climbed up to see?"

All in all, we had a wonderful 3-day weekend filled with lots of good food, new experiences and great sights. I hope you enjoyed your weekend.

Hotaru no Sato Lin Lin
377-1 Koike
Aso city, Kumamoto Prefecture
Phone: 0967-32-3669

Patisserie Roku
6610 Oguni Manganji
Aso-gun, Kumamoto Prefecture
Phone: 0967-48-8101

Yufuin Winery
1140-5 Nakagawa
Yufuin, Oita Prefecture
Phone: 0977-85-5458

B-speak Cafe
2995 Kawakami
Yufuin, Oita Prefecture
Phone: 0977-28-8788

Jam Factory Kotokotoya
3037 Kawakami
Yufuin, Oita Prefecture
Phone: 0977-85-2203