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Super humid and blazing on Saturday, but we got out and about and decided to check out Tsurumi, an area of Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture that has an Okinawan community.

(this photo of this public bath was taken while we walked toward Tsurumi from Kawasaki, I loved the look of it)

Crossing over the bridge from Kawasaki into Yokohama.

The weather was kinda of foggy/hazy from the rain the night before.
 

Tsurumi Shrine.

Seigetsu's yone manju is a Japanese sweet from the Edo period, soft gyuhi (mochi) wraps ume flavored bean paste, white bean paste or sweet azuki bean paste.

They also have a steamed kokuto manju (black sugar manju) made from Hateruma black sugar.

(Hateruma, is the most southern inhabited island in Okinawa which we visited pre-blog.)

I didn’t think the ume bean paste had much flavor.

Glad we tried these though.

 

There is a Japanese drama on tv now called "Chimu don don" and the heroine is from Okinawa and relocates to the Tsurumi area in Yokohama.

While looking for lunch, we noticed that the Honcho shopping arcade was pretty deserted.

We found these cuties waiting outside a Brazilian restaurant.

It seemed like this area also has a Brazilian community as well because there were flyers written in Portuguese.

Okinawa Bussan Center (OBC), a tiny market selling all sorts of items from Okinawa.

From the OBC, we picked up some andagi (plain and kokuto (black sugar) and kunpen/konpen, a traditional Okinawan manju filled with peanuts and sesame seeds that apparently has been around since the Ryukyu Dynasty.

The kunpen on the left is made by Hokama in Naha and is more “authentic” and not too sweet because it has less ingredients in it.

The kunpen on the right is made by Miyagi on Ishigaki Island and tasted more like peanut butter manju and was quite sweet.

Then we waited in line for Okinawan soba at Yajigwr (yah-gee-gwah)

Apparently Yajigwr means "a part of the Yagi clan" in Okinawan.

The main shop, Yaji, is located on the southern part of Okinawa.

I had their soki soba...fall off the bone tender pork..800 yen (tax included) so delicious!

Satoshi had their yasai soba...all sorts of veggies! 750 yen (tax included) He said he enjoyed this.

When we came out, the line was down the street!

Mazda Carol...so cute!

Ushioda Shrine.

Thought it was so neat that they had hydrangeas in the area where you cleanse your hands.

Nemophila (baby blue eyes)

Yokohama manhole cover.

Love the storefronts.

I would definitely come back for the Okinawan soba and andagi.

Seigetsu

4-28-18 Tsurumichuo

Tsurumi ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa

Phone: 045.501.2877

Closed Sundays & Holidays

Hours: 8:30-18:30

Okinwawa Bussan Center

3-74-14 Nakadori

Tsurumi ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa

Phone: 045.504.7816

Hours: 10:00-19:00

Okinawa Soba Yajigwr

3-72-2 Nakadori

Tsurumi ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa

Phone: 045.506.5754

Closed Tuesday

Hours: 11:00-15:00 (lunch), 16:00-20:00 (dinner)

jimmy's

Jimmy's is a chain type bakery in Okinawa, I've never actually been to one when we visited Okinawa, but think it may be similar to Zippy's or King's Bakery.

I think they also have restaurants around Okinawa too.

Apparently they have been in business since 1956 and the owner used to work on the American bases in Okinawa and people used to call him "Jimmy".

He also apparently went to Hawaii to learn how to bake cakes.

I recently found their muffins at the market, so I picked up their banana nut and chocolate chip for us to try.

They are "larger" than the muffins that you find around Japan, so in essence you could say they are "American sized" (though I think the muffins you find in America are probably larger)

These were super moist, buttery and delicious.

On their website they note that they also have purple sweet potato muffins, which I would like to try.

I'm glad we tried them and would pick them up again. 

chura pine

We recently tried a new (to us) pineapple variety called Chura Pine, which was grown on Ishigakijima.

“Chura” is beautiful in Okinawan.

And the Japanese called pineapple, “Pine” for short.

When I looked online for “chura pine”, there were different varieties that popped up.

So, I compared my photo to the different photos on a farm’s site...it wasn't a Snack Pine which is the Bogor type (which we’ve tried before).

It wasn't the Peach Pine....which is supposed to smell similar to peaches...

It was the Hawaii variety...it looked different from the pineapple we have in Hawaii, look at the "floppy" crown.

Trivia tidbit: Apparently pine cones were once called pineapples.

This pineapple had lots of "eyes", it could have been more ripe & sweeter but it was still delicious.

I'm glad we tried this and have planted the top.

Hope the heat doesn't kill it.... 

p.s. Yesterday we received our 1st vaccination...whoo. 

I think we sat in the waiting room longer than it took to actually get jabbed.

Our arms are a bit sore, but so far so good.

Hopefully the 2nd one will actually be in 3 weeks.

p.p.s. a typhoon (Nepartak or Number 8) is heading for our area today....eep!

thankful

We had a nice surprise this week.

My relative, Chiyo-san in Okinawa sent us some mangoes.

I called to thank her and we chatted for a bit.

It has been many years since we visited with her but I still send her nengajo (New Years greeting cards)

She mentioned that since she was sending a box to her grandchildren in Tokyo, she wanted to send us a box too, so nice!

Apparently this variety is called Irwin. 

This mango seems similar to the types we have in Hawaii and is not stringy like the one I had bought a couple years back....love the color!

I hadn't realized this but it was the very first time for Satoshi to eat the flesh off the mango seed by the kitchen sink.

He also wanted me to show him how I cut the mango because he had never seen how it was done before.

I couldn't actually peel the mango like we do in Hawaii, but it was still nice to share some Hawaiian culture with Satoshi.

Thankful for the kindness of family.

Thank you Chiyo-san.

m-m-mango

Have been seeing mango in the markets. Some are imported from Mexico and are reasonably priced.

On the other hand, the krazy priced ones are "local"...from Miyazaki (Kyushu) or Okinawa.

The highest priced one I've seen was 8000 yen...for one!

At the fruit and veggie stand that I often shop at, they had one for 500 yen!

I thought this was a bargain, so I bought one for us to try.

It weighed 300 grams or so (a little over half a pound).

The mango comes with "instructions" on how to cut and eat it.

The flyer in the container and sticker on the mango is also the mango's "proof" that it was grown in Okinawa.

The flyer also refers to the mango as a "tamago" which means "egg" which I thought was kind of strange.

This mango was really ripe.

I tried cutting a piece like the way they said to on their instructions, but found it to be a p.i.t.a. and ended up peeling the mango instead, way easier!

This mango seemed really sinewy (stringy) to me.

I can't tell you what variety it was, but I think the ones I've eaten in Hawaii were a bit firmer with less "strings".

Anyway, this was deliciously sweet and I'm glad we got to try this.

What fruits have you been enjoying this summer?

okinawan instant curries

A couple of weeks back, we tried two Okinawan instant curries, for Curry Friday.

One was a soki (sparerib) curry, this one had lots of tender spareribs in it. And an awamori (Okinawan liquor) keema curry.

The awamori one is on the left and the soki one on the right.

I didn't care for the awamori one, it had a really heavy alcohol taste to it, like the alcohol wasn't cooked off.

I'm glad we got to try these and would definitely buy the soki one again.

remembering mom

I think I inherited this pan when I moved to Japan back in 2001.

In our family, this pan was used for one thing...corned beef hash.

My mom used to open a can of corned beef, the one with the diced potatoes in it, and put it into the pan.

After heating the corned beef up a bit, she would press the back of the spoon into the corned beef hash to make divots.

Then she would crack an egg into each divot.

When the eggs were cooked, the corned beef hash and egg were scooped out and put over rice.

Dinner was served.

We recently tried Okiham's corned beef hash, an Okinawan maker.

The spices are a little different from Hormel Mary Kitchen's.

The amount in the package is too little to do what my mom used to, but it's the memories that count, right?!

Miss you Mom, Happy Birthday!

koregusu tako

Recently in "ELLE à table", there was a story about different hot sauces of the world.

One that was featured was koregusu, the Okinawan hot sauce.

They also had a recipe using it with tako (octopus), so I gave it a try using my homemade koregusu.

Marinated tako adapted from "ELLE à table" issue no.75, September 2014
200 grams steamed tako (octopus)
koregusu
2 tablespoons olive oil
juice of 1 sudachi (lime)
pepper
myoga (ginger shoots), thinly sliced and soaked in water for at least 5 minutes
shiso (perilla), julienned
cherry tomato, sliced in half

Take the tako and cut it into bite sized pieces.
Add the koregusu, amount is up to you.
Add the olive oil and lime juice
Mix well and chill.
Just before serving add the myoga, shiso, cherry tomato.

NOTES: If you cannot get myoga, substitute with red onion. Shiso can be subbed with basil. Lime juice can be subbed with lemon or another citrus. You can also add sliced cucumber and okra too.
Very versatile recipe.
When I first put the oil, koregusu (1 teaspoon) and lime juice together, it wasn't hot...so I added 2 more teaspoons of the hot sauce.
When we ate the tako there was a slight "burn" but nothing "fiery".
I would also add some shoyu for more flavor.
I am making this again.

koregusu

Remember those Thai chilies?

Well, I used most of them to make "koregusu" (co-ray-goo-sue) an Okinawan hot sauce.

Just take some chilies, cut off the stem and put them into a glass jar.

Then fill it with some awamori, Okinawan liquor.

I'll let you know when we start using this.

imbibing

Craft Beers are slowly but surely making their way into the local markets.

I like how they are bringing in more and more Japanese craft beers too.

I recently tried this porter that was made in Okinawa by a brewery called Helios...it went nicely with caramel ice cream.

And this hyuganatsu (citrus tamurana), a citrus fruit beer made in Miyazaki, Kyushu by Hideji Beer.

This was fruity and a little bitter...love the label too!

The weather is slowly warming up here...perfect for cooler foods and drinks.

colorful

I've posted about ninjin shirishiri before, but recently tried making it using colorful carrots (1 purple, 1 yellow and 1 orange)...

The result looked kinda funky but I liked it.

I sauteed the shredded carrots in this ra-yu (chili oil) from Ishigaki Island in Okinawa, that's it.

Super easy and fast, so good!

Happy Girl's Day!

andasu

Have been wanting to make andasu (abura miso) for some time now.

In Okinawan, "anda" means oil or fat and "su" is miso.

It shouldn't be confused with nikumiso which is also made with pork and miso.

Nikumiso tends to have more "stuff" in it like onions, garlic and other goodies.

The recipe I found online was so easy and delicious.

Andasu (abura miso) : translated from "Okinawa's Cooking Book
100 grams pork belly
100 grams miso (soy bean paste)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon sake (rice wine) or awamori (Okinawan sake)
1/2 to 1 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
ginger, grated (optional)*

Cover pork belly with water and simmer for at least 30 minutes or until tender
Let cool and mince
In a pan, put the minced pork in and on low heat heat up the pork
When the oil starts to come out of the pork fat, add the miso and mix the two together
Add the sugar, sake and mirin.
Cook everything thoroughly without burning.
*if you add ginger, add it a little at a time to taste

NOTES: I made this on a rainy day while making rafute, so I used most of the pork belly for rafute and used enough pork belly to make half of this recipe.

Instead of Japanese sake, I used awamori. I didn't add the ginger and made a mistake with the amount of mirin (adding too much).

This was really good on rice.

This was good in musubi also.

I'm making this again.