earth balance

While I was in Hawaii, I came across this...Earth Balance's coconut & peanut spread.

It is a little sweet from the agave, there is a hint of coconut from the coconut oil and since I bought "crunchy"...lots of peanuts.

You need to take it out of the refrigerator to get soft before using, but I really like this.

Is there anything you are enjoying at the moment?

nikumiso ra-yu

This recently caught my eye at the supermarket.

Nikumiso ra-yu. Nikumiso is made by combining pork with miso and other condiments. I've seen it used in musubi or eaten as is.

This particular product is combined with ra-yu (chili oil).

It is similar to gu-iri ra-yu, but with some pork in there.

The weather is still a bit too cold for hiyayakko (cold tofu), but this is delicious.

cool

Recently, I did some frying and was wondering how to throw out the oil.

I usually don't do frying because it makes the house smell and plus throwing out the oil is usually a pain with all the "rules" we have for throwing garbage out.

But I found this neat item at the store.

I skimmed the directions and sprinkled the powder on and stirred (and stirred) wondering why it wouldn't dissolve.

Then, after taking the time to read the directions, I realized that the oil needs to be semi-warm, for the powder to dissolve.

Since my oil was cooled, I re-heated it to the correct temperature and the powder dissolved, while I stirred it.

Then, after waiting an hour, it hardened into this.

With a spatula I was able to throw it out with our burnable garbage.

Cool!

Since I have more of these packets, I think the next thing I fry will either be andagi (Okinawan donuts) or beignets (New Orleans donuts)....maybe both!

It is Friday here, hope you have a great weekend!

egoma oil

I told you about egoma oil. Well, the brand I bought isn't totally 100% egoma oil. It is a blend and mixed with sesame oil.

It smells like sesame oil. At least it doesn't taste like sesame oil.

Next time I buy egoma oil. I must remember to check the label.

goodbye old friend

We decided to give up Satoshi's old book shelf and buy (3) new ones. His book shelf which he bought and assembled when he first went to Hawaii in 1996 has held a LOT of books, folders and papers. (Here's where the shelves will be going, by the phone and by the dining area.)

In buying these new shelves, the rule was no overloading and to purge whatever was not needed. (Here's what they look like after being delivered.)

As I look around our apartment that we have been in for the past 5 years, I can see how much our "nimotsu" (stuff) has accumulated.

When we came over from Hawaii, we had 60 boxes of "stuff", then when we moved from the company housing into this place, we added another 20 boxes...Anyway, we've been working on purging and cleaning up the clutter.

So, thanks, dear friend, we really appreciated all that you did, especially when we had that earthquake the other year and you didn't topple over!
"Otsukaresama" (thanks for all of your hard work)

I also wanted to share with you a snack that I recently found here in Japan. These cookies are made by Beard Papa and an oil called Oillio (which is oil forward and backward).

Beard Papa is the maker of cream puffs, they opened their first store in New York about 2 years ago. When they came to Shirokiya (a Japanese retail and food store) in Hawaii, the line to buy these cream puffs were over 2 hours! I really like the ones in Japan, but were disappointed with the ones I tasted in Hawaii. Somehow the cream filling was kind of heavy and didn't have much taste.

These cookies weren't particularly different from other cookies that I have tasted here, oh well, it was nice to try them. Here are the links: Beard Papa USA & Beard Papa Japan.

Okinawa has gone into their rainy season (tsuyuhairi), so it is just a matter of time before we (Honshu--mainland Japan) do, too. The weather has been very overcast and kind of cold. And I am knocking on wood as I say this, at least it is not humid!

Have a great day, I am off to the dentist to have my 3-month cleaning...sigh...