how are you?

We’ve been laying low.

On New Year’s eve day, the package that Aunty M sent us in December, finally arrived. (thank you!)

Apparently, it had a 3 week "vacation" in Los Angeles...boy, it was a little nerve wracking seeing it hover in Los Angeles...

At about lunch time, we had flurries! for like 5 whole minutes.

Satoshi was not excited to see them…ha! needless to say, I was bummed there wasn't much snow after that.

After dinner, we watched a “Midnight Diner” marathon, “Kodoku no Gurume” special & the Red & White song festival.

On the first day of the year, for our osechi, I had bought mostly everything, but made some tataki gobo & namasu.

I also made some dashimaki tamago (egg with stock)

And we had this reishu...Shirakami Sanchi, a sake from Tohoku.

Instead of buying a whole daikon, I found these cute & pretty turnips called ayame yuki, that have a purple tinge on the outer flesh, I used one to make the namasu. 

Also since I had kept some yuzu peel in the freezer, I put some into the namasu.

Breakfast on the first 2 days of the new year was ozoni.

On the second day of the year, with the leftover kuromame I made some muffins with mochiko, kinako, black sesame seeds, the kuromame and some yuzu peel.

We ate 2 when it came out of the oven and I put the remaining 4 into the freezer.

I reconnected with an instant curry called Bon Curry, the neighbor of my host family had introduced me to this many many moons ago.

Today will be the first time we go outside since "last year"...the markets are open.

Hoping 2022 is off to a nice start for you.

tataki gobo & namasu

I mentioned that I made namasu and tataki gobo for our osechi...these two are really easy to make.

Tataki Gobo adapted from Orange Page
1 "stick" gobo (burdock root) about 8-inches long, scrubbed and cut into half then into fourths.
water

1/4 cup dashi

A: 2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon mirin
1/2 tablespoon shoyu

B: 1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon shoyu
1/2 tablespoon sake
1/2 tablespoon vinegar

2 tablespoons ground sesame seeds

In a pot, put the gobo and water and when the water boils, turn down the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes.
Take the gobo out then using a rolling pin (or something heavy), "roll" over the cooked gobo a couple of times (to break down the fibers).
Then put the gobo, dashi, and ingredients for "A" into a pot and cook on medium until the liquid evaporates.
After the liquid evaporates, coat the cooked gobo with "B" and the sesame seeds.

Namasu
4 inches wide daikon
4 inches long carrot
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar

Peel and shred daikon
Peel and shred carrot
Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and wait for 3 minutes.
After 3 minutes, squeeze out water from daikon and carrot
Put daikon and carrot into sugar vinegar mixture.

NOTES: after making this, I felt the daikon and carrot should be marinated separately then put together before serving to keep the white and orange colors separate.

If you try these, let me know what you think.

the first week of 2019

Happy New Year!

Hope you started the new year off with little to no stress.

I think we started the year off right by being able to see Mount Fuji.

We had ozoni for our first breakfast.

We also went to a lot of shrines around our area for hatsumode.

We also had osechi...this year I bought mostly everything since we were on a little trip before the New Year (which I'll write about later), but did make namasu and tataki gobo (burdock root).

We didn't have all the foods to make it an authentic osechi...oh well.

We face-timed with family on their first day of 2019 (love technology!)

finally got to introduce Satoshi to Civitas, he had the "snack" plate with ham and enjoyed it...we'll definitely be back.

On Friday, Satoshi went back to work, so I went to see "A Star Is Born", I didn't realize it was a remake (have not seen the original nor the other remake)...Loved the music!

Lunch before the movie was at City Bakery...veggie sandwich and cappuccino.

Saturday we went to Naritasan in Chiba.

Lunch or more like mid-afternoon meal was at Surugaya where we waited 3 hours for unagi! (more about that later too).

So that was our first week.

I'll write up things more in detail later, but thought I should kind of bring you up to date.

Have a good week!

the past couple of days

Satoshi went back to work today, so I have some time to post.

On New Years Eve day, we had toshikoshi soba for lunch.

Although we had more soba than soup...

Then for New Years Eve dinner we had all sorts of nibbles.

New Years Day morning.. we had ozoni with mochi in it, some sekihan (reddish rice with azuki beans), and o-toso (which is just a little sip of sake to ward off illnesses and to start the new year).

We went to several of the shrines that we normally do for Hatsumode (first prayers of the New Year).

While standing in line to get to the prayer area of a shrine, we saw this huge tai (sea bream), just hanging in front of an izakaya (Japanese pub).

Huge, yeah?!

I was surprised no cats had attacked it...

Dinner was o-sechi, the foods that are normally eaten during this holiday...I've written about this previously,here.

I'm super thankful for pre-made stuff and not having to do these foods from scratch.

On the 2nd, we braved the crowds of the department store to pick up some bento.

Luckily, we knew what we wanted to get, so we were in and out of there rather quickly...it was super nuts!

We brought the bento and went to visit MIL.

This year is the Year of the Dog.

I noticed this origami dog on MIL's calendar, so we cut it out and folded it into the dog.

We saw the Super Moon as we walked home from the train station.

And then last night, we were craving some meat, so we had some steak with mango chutney and other nibbles.

With all the eating I did, I definitely need to get some walking in...

Hopefully you all had a great holiday season.

happy new year

How was the last day of 2014 and the first day of 2015? Hope you had a nice couple of days.

On the last day of 2014, we went to our favorite neighborhood cafe for breakfast. We also picked up some coffee as we were running low.

Lunch was toshikoshi soba, in Japan, you are supposed to eat it at midnight. In Hawaii, we usually eat it for lunch (because our family usually is ready to go to sleep at midnight), and I also thought we shouldn't really be eating soba so late, so we picked up some kakiage (fried vegetable with shrimp and squid) and had it with our soba.

Dinner was an assortment of things you usually find in the o-sechi, the traditional dishes that you eat during the new year. If you are interested I wrote up a detailed post here.

On the first day of 2015, we had ozoni (the traditional soup with mochi in it).

We then went out to various temples in our area for hatsumode (the first prayers of the new year).

Most places were closed so we were really thankful that a ramen shop in our shopping arcade was open for business.

Dinner that night was a combination of bagna cauda sauce, roasted sardines and daikon leaf pasta. Some dried fruits, cheese and other nibbles with some wine.

On the second day of 2015, we awoke to white rooftops. It had actually started snowing the day before in the afternoon, but I guess it continued through the night.

There wasn't any left on the ground, though there were some slippery spots while walking.

We visited a few more temples in our area and then had lunch at a different ramen place.

After lunch we face-timed with family in Hawaii (love technology!) and then spent the afternoon watching another blizzard whizz by our window.

This little snowman was seen while walking to pick up some food after lunch.

Tomorrow we visit MIL. I'll post about Nagasaki after Satoshi goes back to work and I more time "me-time".

I hope your first weekend of 2015 will be a nice one.

Talk to you again soon!

the first couple of days

Reader Alan had wrote to me about not posting about ozoni.

I've posted about it several times, and didn't want to bore you and post about it again, but since he asked, I'm posting...

Let's reverse a bit...On December 31st, we had toshikoshi soba for lunch, in Japan, you are actually supposed to have this at midnight, but we didn't know whether we would be awake at that time or not, plus, eating that late is a no-no for us these days.

You know, I have many dishes, but nothing proper to warm sake in...sad, yeah?!

Our osechi was store bought, the only thing I made was dashimaki egg (which wasn't traditional)...my kind of cooking.

Buri teriyaki, chikuzeni, kuromame, namasu, konbu maki, tazukuri, kamaboko...I was missing some items from a traditional osechi but we got to eat some of those missing items when we visited MIL.

This year's ozoni was "lazy" style.

A packet of instant o-suimono, some mochi, some daikon slices and hot water.

Heat your mochi and daikon in a pot with water so that they soften, and then pour over the dry o-suimono in a bowl.

I actually saw a version of this on a TV commercial, their version only had the mochi and the o-suimono.

You could probably "jazz" it up with some kamaboko and carrots too.

January 1st, we visited MIL.

Besides osechi, we also had sushi. She said it was her first time ordering from this sushi place, but we thought it was pretty good.

On the 2nd, we did our hatsumode.

We went to a couple of our "usual" places to pray but also went to the Toyonaka Inari Shrine. We were amazed at how big this shrine was, I think we're adding this to our list of places to pray at.

And we had some Japanese sweets, uguisu mochi (which is coated in a green soy bean powder) and shogatsu mochi from Kagetsudo.

So there you go...If you're interested, you can also read a detailed post about Japan's New Year here.

Kagetsudo
1-12-24 Honmachi
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6852.6105

p.s. It's Friday here, and a 3-day weekend, enjoy!

what we've been eating and doing

Satoshi was off the 30th, 31st and 1st, but had to go to work today.

For New Years Eve dinner, we had a hodge podge of foods, some traditional, some not.

For the non-traditional, there was kim chee gyoza, smoked salmon dip with rosemary bruschetta (toasts), and sweet potato salad (recipe to follow).

For traditional, there was date maki (da-tay ma-key) (yellow-ish roll), tazukuri (tiny fish), kuromame (black beans). I've explained about some of these foods before, please read about them here and here.

Apparently the date maki resembles scrolls and is eaten in hopes of having culture develop and grow. It is made out of a whipped fish cake called hanpen, it is also quite sweet.

There was also a little sake (rice wine).

We were able to see the moon quite clearly and the wind was very blustery! I was hoping for some snow, but none was to be found or seen.

On the first day of 2010, we woke to see the first sunrise, but it was so cloudy that we could only see a haze of pink, so we went back to sleep for another hour.

For breakfast, we had ozoni, which I've written about here.

Then we went out to do some hatsumode (ha-tsu-mo-day), which I've also written about here.

We've been enjoying these teeny mikan (tangerines). Most are seedless and easy to peel. Though it was kind of hit or miss with the sweetness.

Before the New Year, I bought a new tea called Nouvelle Annee (New Year) from La Marina de Bourbon, a white tea flavored with citrus and dried fruit...delicious.

(UPDATE:2011 this restaurant is now closed)

We also tried some shiro-taiyaki (white fish shaped pancake filled with sweet bean paste). Apparently this is all the rage now. We found some mini sized shiro-taiyaki on New Years Eve while picking up some last minute groceries.

These came with custard, chocolate & sweet bean fillings. The outside is made with rice flour and egg whites, so it is more like mochi (rice cake) than pancake. We prefer the original version over this white version.

Since most of the markets and shops were closed on New Years Day, we tried to make sure we had enough food to at least last us until the 2nd.

We've also been enjoying these kotorayaki by Toraya Uiro. Kotora means baby tiger. The batter is a yellow sponge type, it is poured into a mold and flipped while baking.

2010 is the Year of the Tiger, so these were perfect to ring in the New Year.

Here is the recipe for the sweet potato salad. In Japan, you will see a lot of potato salad, more like a "mashed potato" salad. In Hawaii, you will actually see the chunks of potato.

This was just a last minute throw together dish, so I don't have real measurements.

1.5 skinny sweet potatoes
some red bell pepper, diced
some onion, diced
some zucchini, diced
some eringi mushroom, diced
pinch of herbs de provence
1 tablespoon sweet pickle juice
1 tablespoon mayonnaise (best foods)

Steam 1.5 skinny sweet potatoes until soft
In a non-stick pan, cook the red bell pepper, onion, zucchini & eringi.
When everything has wilted and browned, add the pinch of herbs de provence...cool.
After the sweet potatoes are soft, mash while hot with skins on...cool.
Add cooled veggies to cooled sweet potato and add sweet pickle juice and mayo.
Mix well.
Chill and serve.