the depths of osaka (part 2)

Well, the rain has stopped and we have cloudy skies.

Yesterday, we met some friends that we hadn't seen in 5 years for a champagne lunch at Trader Vic's, a restaurant in the New Otani Osaka Hotel--they are closing the restaurant down at the end of the month. It was a nice, leisurely lunch and we had endless glasses of champagne and plates of food. Did you know that most people in Japan, don't take a normal lunch hour? A lot of them eat on the run or at their desks. Koichi commented that it had been a long time since he was able to chat and eat at such a leisurely pace.

After lunch, we asked Koichi where he wanted to go. Since he is actually from Tokyo and now works in Kyoto, he hadn't seen much of Osaka. He said he wanted to see the Festival Gate. We had never heard of it, but told him that we would show him Tsutenkaku tower instead. In December, Satoshi and I took his friend, Gen, to see the depths of Osaka, which I wrote about (here).

When we got to the Tsutenkaku, Koichi didn't want to go to the top, so, we kept on walking and it was a good thing that we did. We found the Festival Gate! The Festival Gate is actually a run down amusement park. The roller coaster is still running, but most of the shops have closed down and there are a few fast food places. It is also the home of the Osaka professional wrestling ring which still hold matches. Koichi is a big fan of wrestling, so he was more elated that we found the Festival Gate than with Tsutenkaku.

From the Ebisucho area, we then walked towards Shinsaibashi. There are many shopping arcades in this area. Here is one of them, down the center of the photo is really dark, but it is actually ALL people!

Here is the "symbol" of Osaka. His name is Kuidaore Taro. Kuidaore, as I understand it, means to "eat until you drop". He is dressed up to cheer for Japan in the FIFA World Cup of Soccer.

Satoshi is working today, hope you are having a nice foodie weekend!

trying new recipes and spices

Before going home to Hawaii, I usually try to make of list of things to buy. 

This includes books, foodie things and clothes. 

I had happened to be flipping through one of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks and in it was a list of spices that you should try to have in your pantry.

So...I listed up the ones I didn't have, and on my last trip home, I bought a LOT of spices from a local supermarket. 

They had had all of the spices made by Spice Hunter on sale for 50% off the regular price!!

I was actually introduced to this brand by my mom. 

She really likes this brand because they have a lot of "no salt" stuff (since she has a little high blood pressure). 

I was interested in this brand because they had a lot of organic stuff.

So, now that I have all these spices, what's a girl gonna do? 

Well, I got this idea from Ono Kine Grindz' post . 

One of the dishes that he tried at a restaurant called Aziza in SF, was Moroccan carrot soup. 

After seeing this post, I quickly surfed the net and found a recipe on Recipezaar.com. 

Since I had most of the ingredients (and spices!!) for the soup, and since Satoshi would be eating out for dinner tonight, I decided to try it.

Moroccan Spiced Squash & Carrot Soup by Miraklegirl from Sur La Table.
Exotic and Delicious 6 servings

1 butternut squash, about 1.5 to 2 pounds
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1.5 teaspoons paprika
1.5 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1.5 teaspoons ground coriander
4 large carrots, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
3 cups chicken stock
3 cups water
salt & freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup plain yogurt

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Cut squash in half from to to bottom and place it cut side down, on a lightly oiled baking sheet.
2. Bake until squash can be easily skewered, 50 to 60 minutes. With a spoon, remove seeds and discard.
3. Scrape the pulp from the skin. Reserve the pulp and discard the skin.
4. Warm the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until soft, 7 minutes.
5. Add the paprika, cumin, turmeric, and coriander and continue to cook, stirring for 2 minutes.
6. Add the squash, carrots, sugar, chicken stock, water, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
7. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered until carrots are soft, 20 to 25 minutes.
8. Cool for 15 minutes. Puree the soup in a blender in several batches for 3 minutes each batch until the soup is very smooth.
9. Strain soup through a fine strainer back into pot and gently reheat. If the soup is too thick, add additional water. Season with salt and pepper.
10. Place the yogurt in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper and stir well.
11. To serve, heat the soup. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with cilantro and a drizzle of yogurt.

Enjoy!

Notes: I didn't have squash, so I left it out. 

And didn't have chicken stock, so I used chicken consomme cubes.

I used the italian parsley which I got recently, which I posted about(here). 

The smell in the kitchen was awesome! 

And the soup was sweet, I think it had to do with using only carrots.

The next recipe I decided to try was for Raisin-Nutmeg scones which I saw on the Accidental Hedonist's post. 

This recipe is really easy and fast. 

When these scones came out of the oven, it really smelled like Christmas! 

And they tasted great as is! 

Note: I didn't have raisins so I used cranberries. 

And the orange zest I got from the amanatsu which I wrote about (here).

Last but not least, I also tried the recipe for microwave strawberry jam, which I wrote about (here).

I once had an email that had been forwarded around about using the microwave oven. 

After reading that and passing it on to my mom, she threw her microwave oven out. 

While I am trying to cut back the amount of use of my microwave, I decided to try this recipe without using the microwave oven.

It was just as fast and just as easy. 

Oh, and I only used half a vanilla bean pod because they cost so much here!! 

This concoction also smelled wonderful! Will definitely have to whip up a batch of plain scones for this jam or maybe buy some mac nut ice cream to put this on....

Have a great weekend!

suigetsu park

Well, today the Kansai area has offically started their rainy season.

Today, Satoshi had the day off. We planned to go to a park called Suigetsu Park (before the rain!), which is about a 15 minute walk from our place.

I got up early to make us some sandwiches for breakfast in the park. This peppered ham is made by a company called Kyoto Pork. I saw this brand recently while roaming the aisles of a neighborhood gourmet supermarket and decided to try this local brand. It is really good, not too salty. I made one sandwich on a walnut roll with pesto, the ham, tomatoes and lettuce and another sandwich on a wheat roll with olive tapenade, the ham, tomatoes and lettuce.

We stopped at 7-eleven to buy some canned coffee to have with breakfast. I got a new one made by Ogawa Coffee, a well-known brand in Kyoto. Both the coffee and sandwich were really delicious!


After breakfast, we roamed around the park and enjoyed the hanashobu.

Hanashobu is a type of iris. This park will hold an iris festival this coming weekend, but since we don't want to deal with the crowds and since Satoshi has to work on Sunday, we decided to check them out before everyone else had a chance to.

I tried to link Flickr to Blogger, but something makes the whole computer freeze, so, here are some photos from the park.

By the way, hydrangea in Japan is called ajisai and is also associated with the rainy season. The part that looks like "petals" are actually leaves of the plant (or so I was told once). I really like the colors of ajisai, kind of reminds me of candy!

After walking around the park, we went to Umeda, I had a bead class. I have graduated from Bead Crochet and have moved onto Bead Stitch and will receive my "diploma" later. Bead stitching is very popular in the U.S., but only started up here in Japan recently. I'll post something about my project after I've finished it!

Hang in there, one more day until the weekend!

the rainy season

The rainy season (tsuyu) started in mid-May for Okinawa and started last Friday for Kyushu, it's just a matter of time before we get our share here in Osaka, as it is slowly making its way up the chain of islands.

One way to tell that the rainy season is coming are with these flowers called tachiaoi. The weatherman once said that when you see this flower start to bloom, the rainy season has started and by the time the top flowers bloom, the rainy season will be in full-swing.

Tachiaoi is also called hollyhock. Archeologists thought that this flower is one of the oldest, since it was found about 60,000 years ago in the Neanderthal's graves, apparently as an offering to the dead in the Northern part of Iraq. This flower travelled the Silk Road to the Shisen Province of China, where it was propagated and before the Tang Dynasty it was called shokuki--the name which it is well-known by. In the Heian period in Japan, it was called karaaoi and then in the Edo period the name was changed to tachiaoi.

Changing the subject, there is a fruit called, amanatsu literally means "sweet summer", this citrus fruit is a yellowish-orange and thought to be derived from the pomelo (zabon). This fruit is mainly grown in Kumamoto (Kyushu) and Ehime (Shikoku).

I thought it would be sweeter, but it was quite sour, more like zabon...so I took the zest and put it aside for something I have planned (probably a new scone recipe...)--and decided to add sugar to the juice and make it into a sweet dessert.

Here's the recipe: (translated and adapted from the Japanese version)--original recipe by Kosuge Yoko

1 orange (1/2 cup juiced)
1/2 kiwi fruit (about 50g)
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp powdered kanten (agar-agar)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp grand marnier

1. squeeze juice from orange
2. peel kiwi and cut fruit into thirds lengthwise
3. in a pot, put the water and powdered kanten in and heat, when it starts bubbling, turn heat down and let simmer for 2 minutes, add sugar.
4. add lemon juice, orange juice, and grand marnier to the pot.
5. put everything into a long, narrow measuring cup and when the mixture has cooled a bit, add the kiwi vertically, put into the refrig.
6. take out from the cup and slice into 3.
7. Enjoy!

Note: I didn't add the kiwi or the grand marnier. Also, since this recipe only serves 3, I doubled it and put the mixture into 6 little ramekins.

Extra stuff to ramble about: as I went to the grocery store today, I went past a construction area. About a month ago, they had built two houses, side-by-side. As I went past today, I realized that they were building ANOTHER house right in front of the two that were already there! Although this type of construction is really common here in Japan, I still haven't gotten used to the idea and cannot understand how these people buying the houses stand for it. I mean, if my houseplans show a window in the front of the house, I would think it should be functional, right? The big blue sheet is to protect the surrounding from dust and noise (how thoughtful), and the little driveway, is also the parking area for the house that is pictured at the end of the driveway!

As I was making my way home, I was crossing over a bridge and saw a couple of men looking down into the river. I also heard a very LOUD, ruu-mmuu, ruu-mmuu sound. I stopped to see what they were looking at and lo and behold! Huge frogs! Okay, my lens isn't that strong, so decided to draw in an arrow so you could see him. In Japan, these big boys are called ushigaeru--literally bullfrogs.

Hope you are keeping cool where you are, it is 30C (87F) here and HUMID here!

scones

This morning I was kind of in a pinch--I only had enough rice for Satoshi's musubi (rice ball) which he takes to work, and didn't have any bread in the house for breakfast.

I remembered a recipe for scones that I saw on the Blue Lotus' blog. She actually got the recipe from the Scent of Green Bananas' blog. I had printed it out and was going to try it soon, but since I needed something (fast) to go with breakfast, I decided to try it.

Simple scones

2 cups self-rising flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 to 1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 450F (230C).

Mix all ingredients together to form a stiff dough. Knead on a floured surface lightly, then roll out the dough to desired thickness and cut out as desired. You can rework the scraps to cut out more. Bake for 10-12 minutes until puffy and lightly golden.

Microwave strawberry jam

1 punnet of strawberries
1 vanilla bean, slit down the middle
sugar to taste (1/2 to 1 cup, usually)

Place all ingredients in a microwavable bowl. Microwave on "high" for 6-8 minutes, until all the sugar has dissolved and the strawberry juices have thickened slightly. Refrigerate until ready to use (this will taste better after several days, but can be used immediately).

Note: This recipe IS really simple. Not many ingredients involved and not much to do but mix! I made my scones too thin though, and will try to make them thicker the next time I try this recipe. I also sifted all the ingredients and I think this is what helped to make the scones REALLY light and flaky. I didn't try the recipe for the jam since I am trying to cut down on the use of my microwave and I want to try the recipe with a real vanilla pod in the mixture.

Other notes: to make self-rising flour I put 2 tsp. of baking powder for every 1 cup of flour.
A punnet (according to Merriam-Webster Online) is a small basket for fruits or vegetables.

Enjoy!

"guy" movies

This weekend since it was Satoshi's birthday, we decided to see a couple of movies. The first one that we saw was Umizaru 2: Limit of Love, it was about the Japan Coast Guard (Kaijohoancho). In February, we went to Kure which was the location of the first movie, "Umizaru" which I wrote about (here). Besides this movie, there was also a television "drama" (the Japanese word for soap opera) that preceded this movie--which you should watch before seeing "Umizaru 2". I won't go into too much detail about this movie, but it was nail biting until the very end!

The second movie that we saw was Goal! With the World Cup starting soon (or is it starting already?) this movie was released in Japan, just in time (although there weren't too many people who came out to see this movie). I had a hard time going between Spanish, British English and trying to figure out what they were saying by reading the flash of Japanese that came up on the screen, but it was a great movie.

Although both of these movies were packed with sit on the edge of your seat action, there were also part where it was so emotional that I sat there with tears rolling down my cheeks!

So much for these movies being "guy" movies.

Hope you had a nice weekend.

happy birthday!

Today is Satoshi's birthday. Since we moved to Japan, I've been baking him a sponge cake with whipped cream and strawberries (mainly because the cost to buy a whole cake is quite outrageous!)

The box cake mix that I buy is often iffy-- sometimes it comes out hard, sometimes just right. Today's cake was no different, very hard on the bottom and light and fluffy on top. After I use up this box (there are two packets when you buy it), I'll try making it from scratch (since I got a recipe off the flour package.)

Here's the birthday boy!

I leave you with some photos of our second trip to Aramaki Rose Garden. We went back this past Wednesday.

Hope you are enjoying the weekend!