anmitsu hime mikan

Sometime last year, I spotted these Anmitsu hime mikan...I love the name...

Anmitsu is the agar dessert with sweet bean paste (an) and a black syrup (mitsu)

Hime is princess

Mikan is a type of citrus/tangerine

When I wanted to buy some I couldn't find them...until yesterday.

This variety is picked just before reaching its peak and put into storage to "sweeten" up.

We tried this with breakfast and the outer skin is thick.

The flesh is juicy and sweet.

I'm glad we got to try this one.

kagawa obara beniwase

I found these super orange-y mikan at the supermarket recently.

They are called Kagawa Obara Beniawase..."beni" is the Japanese word for red.

I picked them up because I thought they might be similar to blood oranges.

Well, they weren't they were just really dark orange on the outside.

I've put them next to the other mikan I had to show how dark orange these were.

I'm glad we tried them.

mikan

We've been enjoying different mikan (tangerine)....

starting with these Hinomaru Senryo (left) from Ehime (Shikoku) Nishi-Uwajima and Nagasaki Saikai's Ajimaru (right)...

The ajimaru's peel was so thin!

Ehime (Shikoku) Maana...all were so sweet!

I learned something new recently.

If you carefully take off the stem's nub, you will see...

these little partitions...and if you count them (click on the photo, I circled them)...

you should end up with the same amount of tangerine pieces...cool yeah?!

mikan rice

Interested in recreating the mikan onigiri that we tried in Matsuyama, I looked online to see if there was a recipe online.

There were many...

I chose one that would be simple and that probably everyone could replicate too.

This one is adapted from the one on the Japan Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries site...

Makes 1/2 cup of rice

1/2 cup rice, washed
1/2 cup mikan juice, fresh squeezed or your fave
about 1 teaspoon of mikan peel, diced

Put everything into the rice cooker, let everything sit for about 30 minutes then cook.

NOTES: super easy and the mikan flavor isn't too overpowering.

The first couple of tries I had put in some maitake in, but feel it turned the rice a brownish color.

I served this with chicken, but you can serve with your favorite main dish.

If you up the amount of rice & juice, keep the peel to the 1 teaspoon.

I think this would look nice in bento for Spring/Winter.

I'm making this again.

things I'm liking (for breakfast)

What are you enjoying for breakfast?

I hope you do eat breakfast, did you know that until Satoshi and I started dating, he didn't?!

Now, he says, "he can't live without it" (breakfast).

Anyway, it has been awhile for a "things I'm liking post", so I thought I'd share with you some things that I'm liking for breakfast.

I first heard about Pon juice from Martin's blog.

This is one of the first "local" orange/citrus juices that is a juice made from 100% mikan (tangerine)grown in Japan.

Most others add grape juice or other fruits to come up with the 100%, leaving you with only a smidge of orange in there.

On the container they are called "pom" but the katakana reads "pon".

It is a little pricey, but worth every "penny", especially since they don't use a lot of preservatives or colorings. I think the label only lists 2 ingredients, the mikan juice and a preservative.

We'll be drinking this often.

It is strawberry season here.

The other day, while I was at the market, these caught my eye.

Hinoshizuku are grown in Kumamoto and are really sweet.

I debated whether to get them because they were quite expensive, 599 yen (about US$5.99) a container, but I'm glad I did. In the container there were 2 layers, total about 35 or so berries.

They are sweet and delicious, perfect for our mornings.

Nisshoku's quick oats. On their site it says that they are the first company to bring oatmeal and cereal to Japan in 1929.

Everything grown in Hokkaido and don't you just love the can?

I bought the quick oats at Seijo Ishii but noticed on their site that they have a rolled oats, which I'm interested in trying. I hope I can find them somewhere.

In the meantime, I have Bob's Red Mill Thick Oats in the container, which I brought back from one of my trips to Hawaii.

I recently found these kiwi, I've mostly seen the ones from New Zealand but these from Shikoku (Ehime) caught my eye...198 yen (about US$1.98) for 5.

They were a little tart and a bit on the unripened side but were great with plain yogurt and homemade granola made with pecans, pistachios and dried cherries.

Is there something you are enjoying for breakfast?

things I'm liking (and disliking)

Here are some things I am liking (and disliking) this week...

So we can end on a good note, let's start with the things I am disliking...The new McFlurry...it is mint with oreo cookies but there is this really fluorescent blue goop that is mixed into the soft serve and doesn't taste minty at all...blah!

Another thing I am disliking is the fact that the a/c that came with our apartment is on the fritz...luckily, in another room we have the a/c that we brought with us to our apartment, only thing is that this room has no tv or access to the computer...sigh.

The super of our building says he will change the a/c for us either Friday or Saturday (yeah!), since the repair guy was asking for almost 100,000 yen (about US$1000), to fix the combuster. (yipes!)

Okay, let's move on to the liking...

Mariage Frères teas...Bolero (a flavored tea using fruits from the Mediterranean), Iskandar (a green floral tea with a hint of mint), Wedding Imperial (assam with caramel flavor). I received Wedding Imperial along with another flavored tea from my blog friend PT! (thank you!) I am enjoying these iced.

Starbucks' walnut fig pound cake...280 yen (about US$2.80). Moist with lots of fig and walnuts.

Macadamia nut pesto with Laughing cow cheese on Moisan's naturelle ficelle. Moisan, a well-known French bakery will be shutting its doors at the end of August, as the department store they are in (SOGO) will be closing. I recently went to pick up some poppy seed ficelle but they were out, so I got this and some hazelnut-walnut rolls instead.

Aoi mikan (green tangerine) from the looks of them they look unripened but when you cut them open they are bright orange! and so sweet too. We recently got 6 of them from my MIL and I squeezed them all for our breakfast the other day. About 3 was enough for a cup.

Boulangerie Monsieur H's breads...we recently received a boxful of assorted breads from my host-sister who lives near this bakery, I had these slices for lunch with some cheese....look at all those dried fruits and nuts! (Thank you!)

Pierre Marcolini's biscuits...we also received these huge biscuits from my host-brother's wife...chocolate chip cookies with ginger infused chocolate in the center...mmm! (Thank you!)

What are you liking (disliking) this week?

culture shock

The other day I went to the market and saw all these people crowded around something in the produce section. When you see a crowd or line in Japan, you know something good is happening (usually anyway).

I went closer and realized that they were stuffing mikan (mandarin oranges) into plastic bags. I looked at the sign and it said tsumehoudai (all you can pack) 300 yen (about US$2.50).

I've seen this on television at many Tokyo supermarkets. The store puts an item on special and gives you a really low price for what you can stuff into the bag they give you. Some of those people on the television stuffed 60 weiners into their bags or 20 carrots. Sometimes it is a timed event, like a half hour or 10 minutes, so most people are in a frenzy trying to get the most of the items into their bags.

So I grabbed a bag and tried getting into the crowd. Those older women and men are brutal! They were blocking the boxes of mikan and really stuffing their bags. I thought the mikan would smash the way they were stuffing them in. You could hear chatter amongst them and one woman was saying how someone had stuffed 19 into their bag so she wanted at least that much.

The produce guy felt sorry for me and let me take my mikan from his cart, I felt each one as I put it into my bag and took 12. (6 days worth of mikan for our breakfasts.)

When I went to the check-out, the lady at the register said, "you can fit about 6 more into your bag". (If you look at the photo, there is still some room at the top. The top of the bag also had a "handle", so there are two holes near the top.)

I told her I didn't want to buy too many and have them spoil before we could eat them.

Then the lady in back of me put in her 2 cents..."yeah, you should get more and put more in"

After paying, I could hear the cashier and the lady that was in back of me continuing on their conversation as to how I could have put more into my bag.

It was a great way to get a lot of mikan for a low price, but I don't think I want to go through that again.

mikan, tea pots and chocolate

As I walked through the shopping arcade this morning, I came upon a little pick-up truck selling a bucketful of mikan for 400 yen (about $4). 

I have often seen vendors selling their wares, but never thought to stop.

Mikan is Japan's tangerine, the skin is so thin that you can peel it in one go, and there are no seeds!

About this time of year they come out at the markets. I think it is to help people fight and prevent colds. 

Can you believe I was buying them from the supermarket for 398 yen for 8 medium sized ones or the same price for 10 small sized ones?

After seeing this man's sign though--I bought a bucketful! 33 small sized ones, still worth it, I hope they are sweet...

Walking back with my load of mikan, for some reason or other I was thinking about tea. Which got me to thinking about how many different tea pots I have.

There is the Bodum tea pot which I use for herb tea and black tea which we received from friends after moving to Japan with matching cups and saucers.

The Chinese tea pot which I use for different Chinese teas--sometimes you see these in Chinese restaurants it is big and heavy, hmmm...I wonder where Satoshi got this one, he had it before we got married....

The Japanese tea pot which I use for green teas or other Japanese teas. We received this one from Satoshi's co-worker for our wedding and came with matching tea cups.

How many do you own?

Lastly, I wanted to share with you more chocolates. These are made by Glico.

"Fuyu"(winter) are chocolate covered mac nuts and almonds with a thin cocoa powder layer on top.

Carrenoix -chocolate with sliced almond and a layer of pralines.

Both are very addicting!

Tomorrow is a holiday, Bunka no hi, Culture day!

snacks & goodies

Ugh, the weather has been so hot the past couple of days. The temperature was about 35C (95F), stepping out of the house smelled like a sweaty locker room and felt like when you open the oven door....blah!

But enough about that...the nice thing about having family come to visit you, is not only being able to spend time with them, they also bring you nice goodies.

Like this trek mix from Trader Joe's. I really like Trader Joe's and wish there was one in Hawaii. But, it also keeps the excitement alive for going to one in the continental U.S. I brought most of this on our climb.

A huge bag of Hershey's Extra Dark miniatures. I've posted about the chocolate bars previously,(here).

A bag of dark chocolate dipped mac nut shortbread cookies from Big Island Candies.

A bottle of mom's bread and butter pickles. These are great on tuna sandwiches! If I ever venture to try making these, I will definitely share the recipe!

A bottle of mom's strawberry guava jelly. Strawberry guava is a type of guava in Hawaii, there is no actual strawberry in the jelly.

And a box of cookies from the Honolulu Cookie Company.

I also wanted to share some of the food finds from our recent journey.

A shiomame daifuku (salted bean rice cake stuffed with salted beans and sweet bean paste) found in a little shop called Kikyouya in front of the Ootsuki station. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the inside, but it was really soft and delicious!

Kikyouya
1-2-1 Ootsuki, Yamanashi
Phone: 0554-23-2011
http://www.kikyouya.co.jp/

A cocoa daifuku (rice cake stuffed with cream and chocolate bean paste). This was found at a little shop called Miyazakiya near the Gotemba station. They also have a cafe daifuku which has coffee flavored bean paste, but we didn't try it. My mom didn't care for this one, but my dad and I enjoyed it!

Miyazakiya
1991-2 Shinbashi, Gotemba
Shizuoka
Phone: 0550-82-1629

The hotel we stayed at in Hakone served us a juice made from Wasei mikan. Mikan is a type of mandarin orange. It was very light and refreshing.

Hope you are enjoying the weekend--we have a three-day weekend here!