odds & ends

Last Tuesday, I met my friend, Maui Luna for some cake. She didn't have much time, so we popped into Malebranche for tea and talk.

The main shop is in Kyoto, but they also have a cafe in the Hanshin department store in Umeda, which is where we went.

I ordered the Strawberry cake, this had condensed milk in it and boy, was it sweet.

Maui had the green tea cake, in comparison to my cake, this was not sweet and was perfect with tea.

I hadn't been to this cafe in awhile and was disappointed that they had gotten rid of their "cake set"--your choice of cake and tea.

Everything was ala carte and expensive.

Still, it was a nice time spent chatting. Afterwards, we wandered around in the food basement. Hope you had a nice time in Japan, Maui, it was surely fun meeting you!

Last Wednesday was a busy day, Satoshi and I went to get my mammogram done. Then we went down to get my visa, on the way, we stopped into this bread shop for a snack. Backerei Gen (Bakery Gen) is located near the Makiochi station.

I bought the yakisoba pan (a soft bun filled with yakisoba (fried noodles)) 126 yen (about US $1.26). It was my first time to have this and it was really good! Something that you wouldn't find in the U.S.

After getting the visa (which took like 5 minutes after our number was called), we stopped for a late lunch at Hanshin department store's H Mille-Un. This was their quick lunch--we chose the pasta which was a meat sauce. This was more upscale meat sauce with bits of chopped up steak, not the small bits of hamburger (1500 yen (about US$15).

Dessert was a custard cake, though this tasted more like buttercream frosting layered between very dry pieces of cake and a little scoop of yuzu (citron) sherbert (plus 300yen (US$3))UPDATE:2009, this restaurant is now closed after the renovation of the Hanshin Department Store.

After getting my visa, I needed to register the visa with my city office, so it was back to Makiochi last Thursday. Having loved the yakisoba pan, I bought another one for lunch.

This past Sunday, after going to Aramaki, Satoshi and I found ourselves wandering around Ashiya. This is an upscale neighborhood, not a place for jeans and tennis shoes (which is how we were dressed)! Satoshi's friend, Yanagita, called and invited us to go riding. They took us up the mountain to a terraced cafe--Cafe the Terrace. This is actually someone's house that they renovated to serve as a cafe.

When you sit out on the terrace, they bring out a paper which warns you that there may be bugs or "things" that may fly into your food/drink and that since they appreciate nature, they will not kill them nor will they replace your food/drink.

Since we were sitting under a tree and it is kemushi (fuzzy caterpiller) season, we ate very quickly....

kakimochi

The other week I showed you pieces of mochi (rice cake) that was drying for kakimochi (rice cracker).

The mochi pieces have to dry for a week so that there is no moisture when you fry them.

You are supposed to deep fry these, but I fried a couple of pieces in a tablespoon of heated oil.

I then mixed 1 teaspoon of salt with 1/2 a teaspoon of matcha (green tea) powder.

The bigger the piece of mochi, the bigger the piece of kakimochi and the longer it has to fry. Some of the pieces that I fried were kind of thick, so the inside of the kakimochi was kind of hard but chewy.

Cook in the oil until a light brown. I used kome abura (rice oil) because I heard that this oil is great for frying--it fries things up really light.

After frying, take out of the oil and drain on a paper towel and then toss in the matcha salt mixture while kakimochi is still warm.

This was a delicious snack with some cold rooibos tea. I think it would also go well with beer.

I think the next time I fry up some of this (since I still have quite a bit more,) I'm going to sprinkle sugar on it.

ume pork

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a foodie party we had and a dish that one of the wives brought.

She didn't have a recipe, so I tried re-creating the dish for dinner.

You need thinly sliced pork. I bought the kind for shabu-shabu (the hot pot where you wave your slices of meat in hot broth a couple of times then eat it). Try to buy meat that is a little bigger than the width of your shiso leaf.

Try to buy the same amount of shiso (perilla leaves/beefsteak leaves) as slices of meat. Luckily, in Japan, they sell it in packages of 10.

You need some ume paste, if you don't have any, just de-seed the ume and chop it up. I didn't have any, but did have a paste made with chopped up shibazuke (veggies that are pickled with red shiso), shiso, black sesame and ume.

Lay your piece of pork flat, put a leaf of shiso, then put some ume paste, then roll tightly.

Put a half tablespoon of oil in a pan and heat.

Cook until the pork is browned and cooked through. Some ume paste may leak and the red from it may be hard to tell if your meat is cooked through, just try to cook it for at least until the outside is dark brown in color.

This dish is easy and tasty. I think you could use thinly sliced beef or even flattened out chicken too.


With the leftovers, I put some into our breakfast bento on Sunday.
With breakfast and some coffee in tow, we went to our favorite park during this time of year--Aramaki Rose Garden. The roses are in full bloom.

There were many people there and the soft fragrance of the different roses was so nice and relaxing.

vanilla (week 1)

The construction in front of our lanai is going smoothly--they have 2 houses up. There are air gun sounds (which I think are hammering in nails), pounding sounds, electric saw sounds, from 8:00 until 17:00 everyday except Sunday!

Yes, the Japanese love to work on Saturdays and not only construction, the offices too, which is where Satoshi is today (Saturday). The weather has been so nice that I want to open our sliding door to let in the cool breezes (while we still have them), but haven't been able to, because of the ruckus.

While the construction is going well on one side of our apartment, the destruction of the houses in front of our front door is also progressing. This turned out to be a very dusty undertaking. While the breaking of tiles and glass is over, I can't open the window on that side of the apartment because it is so dusty.

Anyway...it is the first week since I started making my own vanilla extract.

The color from the beans have started to mix into the vodka, but it still smells like alcohol more than vanilla extract.

Since I didn't pour in a bottle of extract, I think I need to wait more than the 6 to 8 weeks for it to start smelling like vanilla extract.

Will keep you posted.

Hope you have a great week!

kiri

Ever since the butter shortage, I've switched to cream cheese for my morning toast.

At the supermarket, 6 slices of cream cheese are about 298 yen (about US$2.98) or 49.6 yen per pat. The other week while shopping at the gourmet supermarket, they had a 10 pack for 375 yen (about US$3.75) or about 37.5 yen per pat...I picked up two boxes.

I've also found a good wheat bread made by Takaki bakery. It is there "ishigama" (stone oven) line. There are only 4 slices in a bag for 273 yen (about US$2.73) (in Japan, most breads do not have more than 6 slices).

With the shortage of butter, most bakeries have turned to using margarine or shortening, but they don't use margarine or shortening to make this bread, they use olive oil.

ob-gyn

One thing that I wanted to share with you was my ob-gyn experiences. The first part is an excerpt from an email to my family and friends was when I went for my pap smear in 2003.

"Well, I just wanted to share the latest experience I've had in Japan...going to the ob-gyn. Bear with me guys, while I talk about this...and girls, you can feel where I'm coming from...

Every year, our city office issues out coupons for free pap smears and breast examinations...so, I had Satoshi checkout which doctor could do both exams and we went there yesterday. Let me just say that it was like no other exam I've ever had, in fact, it was kind of embarassing.

First they take you to a curtained area, where they tell you to undress from the bottom down, there is no tissue paper cover to wrap yourself in (talk about a recycling country!) then they make you sit in this chair which looks like the one at the dentist (or some carnival ride), except that there is no place to put your feet...they just dangle. There is a curtain in front of you and all you can see are feet moving about behind the curtain...the chair reclines back, while pushing your legs apart...then the doctor does the smear (that part is still the same), all the while they are telling me to relax (yeah, I'm half way upside down and you want me to relax??) at the end of the smear they fill the cavity with fluid to clean the area...

Then it was off to the breast examination...this again was embarrassing...again, no tissue paper cover to wrap yourself...just nude on the top-half, curtains wide open, people walking back and forth...first you sit facing the doctor with your hands behind your head and the doctor whacks the bottom of your breast (like when you hit a ping pong ball and bounce it on the paddle)...to see how perky they are...I thought, "is this test for real?" then he makes you lie down with your hands behind your head and the doctor checks them again, this time by pressing down on them...talk about perspiration from being totally embarrassed...(now I know why I've put off going in Japan...)"

So, on the last trip home, I finally went to my old ob-gyn for a pap smear...but with no insurance...I think it cost US$300 just for the visit and another $80 for the lab fees! (I'll have to pay back my mom for paying the bill after I left...)

Yesterday, since Satoshi had the day off, we went to another doctor in Minoo that was offering free mammograms through the city office. (The doctor we went to in 2003, is no longer on Minoo's list...hmm..)

I was dreading the test and Satoshi was dreading sitting the in the waiting room filled with ladies. Well, Satoshi got reprieved as the doctor we went to, was actually a clinic for men and women, they don't only do ob-gyn stuff.

They called me in and thank goodness...they had tissue paper vests to cover up with! The radiologist was very patient.

It was my first time getting a mammogram, but with the high cost of getting it in Hawaii without insurance, I figured I should get it done in Japan since it is paid for by the city.

The x-ray machine that they use takes x-rays of your breasts from the upright position. I am not "well endowed" as others, and let me tell you, they pull and press every inch of your breasts to a horizontal position then you have to hold your breath, while they take the x-ray...ow! (though I think I was holding my breath even before they told me to!)

Then the machine turned sideways so that it can squeeze your breasts vertically and take x-rays of the armpits as well. Though it was over within a couple seconds, it was pretty painful!

Within minutes, they called me back in to see the doctor and he showed me the x-ray images. He said that he didn't see anything wrong.

Then he told me that he wanted to do an actual breast exam, so I had to strip (top only), right then and there so that he could do a breast examination, no "I'll leave to take off your clothes, please wrap yourself in a tissue cover...", the nurse and doctor were there...just watching...sigh.

On top of that, the x-ray images will be examined by another doctor (which is what they do with all mammograms), so I need to go back in two weeks to hear the verdict. Hopefully everything will turn out okay and thank goodness these exams only need to be done once a year!

Maybe this post was TMI (too much information), but I thought for those who are thinking of living in Japan (or want to see life beyond the tours), this kind of information may be eye-opening as to the type of medical system that is available in Japan.

Hope you have a great weekend!

banh mi cravings

If you haven't figured it out by now, reading food blogs can be dangerous. It can make you hungry for all sorts of foods (at all times of the day!). Take for example, Kirk's blog.

Living in Japan, there isn't too much access to ethnic foods like Vietnamese. Well, there is, but most of it is tailored to the Japanese palate. So, after seeing his posts on banh mi (if you go through his blog, he has a LOT, as well as other tantalizing posts as well), I knew it was time to make some.

On my last trip home, I purchased this gadget. Now, making the veggies for banh mi are simple.

I followed the recipe here, but this time I added some chili flakes and a dash of shoyu. I also marinated the veggies overnight.

I wish my flat leaf parsley was bigger, so that I could have added more to the sandwich, but made do with what I had.

This sandwich really settled the fix for banh mi....thanks for the idea, Kirk!