hot weather = spicy foods

For the past couple of days, the temperature has been in the 90's (about 35C). That wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't humidity to deal too. Today, the thermometer hit 100F (38C).

What is it about spicy food and hot weather? For some reason, this summer I am really into spicy foods. From spicy curries to chili sauces. I wonder if it is to perspire more in order to cool off? Some people actually experience loss of appetite during the summertime here, that, has never been my problem (thank goodness!)

Well, the price of a lot of veggies have recently skyrocketed here in Osaka. Why? Last month's rain and flooding took its toll on a lot of the farming areas. For example, green leaf lettuce went up from about $2 a head to about $4--that is, when you can find it in the supermarket.

This past weekend, my student, Tomomi, gave us some nasubi or nasu (eggplant) and piman (green bell pepper). (Thank you!) (When we first came to Japan, I was surprised that green bell peppers were so "cute" in size.)

To use part of the veggies, I decided to make some curry. Usually, I throw everything into a pot and add a pre-made roux. This time, I sweat the onions until soft and caramelized, added the meat and then added some garam masala and other spices. Then I cooked the veggies separately in a non-stick pan and cooked them until they had a nice brownish-color. It came out spicier than I usually make it, but it was good!

With the rest of the veggies, I decided to make mabo tofu, which is actually a spicy Chinese dish using tofu (soy bean curd) and minced pork. Instead of tofu though, I used the eggplant, bell peppers and added okra. The stickiness from the okra is supposed to help fight natsubate (dealing with the heat of summer). I guess you could call this version mabo veg. It was really good with some rice.

Hope you are keeping cool where you are!

around the neighborhood

Not much happening around here, Satoshi had to go to work today. Just wanted to show you some shots from around the neighborhood.

Everyday on my walks to the grocery store, I see this cat. He/she actually had a white face, somehow it has turned gray, probably from pollution. Anyway, he/she is always on the shady side of this house. In the afternoon, he/she moves to the glass sunroof area, which I think may be even cooler.

The playground area of an elementary school nearby. I was shocked because there is no grass! I've only seen grass at schools in Okinawa. Growing up in Hawaii, our playground area always had grass and we always ran around barefoot!

The outside shell of the semi (cicada) in Japanese it is called utsusemi and is quite fragile. Kinda ugly, yeah?

Last night, we walked to the Minoo Falls area thinking it was lit up with all these candles (I had seen an ad)--It was the weekend before. :( The falls were lit up with regular lights though, although my digital camera didn't take very good photos at night. :( Though, I was able to catch a butterfly trying to figure out what to drink at a vending machine.

And lastly, a foodie item, this curry pan (fried bread filled with curry) is made at a bakery inside of a nearby supermarket. This is the first time I've come across a curry pan that actually had chunks of beef in it and the bread is actually fluffy in texture! Delicious!

Hope you are keeping cool where you are! Have a good week!

world cup chocolates

I first tried Ritter Sport chocolates when we went on our honeymoon to Europe. Although, I like dark chocolate, I enjoyed the milk chocolate butter biscuit bar and the whole hazelnuts bar.

When I came to Japan, I noticed that Ritter Sport were also sold here and directly from Germany (where Ritter Sport is from).

Well, the FIFA World Cup of Soccer is over. For those who didn't know about it, they were held in Germany this year and Italy's team was the overall champs.

Apparently, these flavors by Ritter Sport were only available in Germany, luckily I was able to buy them here in Japan! The packaging was cute! Each chocolate had photos of different countries' soccer fans. I am usually a dark chocolate eater, but these milk chocolate flavors were good chock full of peanuts and other good stuff!

Sunny Crisp: milk chocolate filled with a LOT of sunflower seeds and crispies.

Golden Peanut: milk chocolate filled with a LOT of peanuts

Espresso Crunch: milk chocolate with a coffee creme center, espresso chips and crispies

Hopefully they'll make these for their U.S. market! (or maybe they already have?)

trying to beat the heat (part 4)

Something usually seen during the summer are these clouds called nyudogumo (cumulo-nimbus), they are usually seen in the afternoon and bring thunder and rain. Unfortunately, even though it rains, the humidity still lingers.

Changing the subject, have you ever wondered what I do about grocery shopping during the summer here?

Since many people here have to travel a bit to get to the supermarkets, many stores have ice chests where you can help yourself to some free ice, put them into plastic bags and lay them near your fresh foods like fish, meats, dairy products. You can't eat the ice because it is treated with something that keeps the ice from melting quickly. I usually don't like this type, because if you can't eat the ice and it gets on your food, is it safe?

There was a story on Slashfood recently that also talked about free ice.

Other stores have re-useable ice called horeizai, it looks like those big blue ice packs for your ice chests or lunch bags only smaller. I like these because they are re-useable. Plus, if you wrap a couple in a towel and place it around your neck, you can feel cool for a couple of hours! (at least long enough to catch a nap without the a/c on...) Oh, and if you happen to buy ice cream, you can purchase dry ice for a small cost.

Changing the subject again, there is another dish that reminds me of Okinawa called goya champuru. Goya is the Okinawan name for bittermelon (nigauri in Japanese). Champuru means to mix.

This dish is a type of stir fry and is really easy to make. I usually make this dish during the summertime because goya is plentiful and also has a lot of vitamin C, almost 4 lemons worth. It is supposedly a good food to help your body shield the sun's rays.

To make this dish you need a block of tofu (firm type) (soy bean curd), some bacon/luncheon meat (sliced), a goya and an egg.

When buying goya, make sure that the bumps on the outside are rather large, if they are small, this means your goya is too young (and VERY bitter!).

To prepare the goya, first cut it in half. You'll notice there is a lot of fuzzy stuff inside, this is called wata (literally cotton), use a spoon and get as much of this "cotton" out, the more you take out the less bitter it will taste. After taking the "cotton" out, slice thin and rub with salt. This is supposed to also take some of the bitterness away, then rinse.

Open the container of tofu and put it over a strainer to get out as much water . Cut up your tofu into bite size pieces. Put a tablespoon of oil in a pan and "fry" your tofu, this is also to get out a lot of the water. Take the tofu out of the pan and set aside.

Add the sliced bacon/luncheon meat and goya and cook until the goya is tender, then add the tofu back into the pan. Lastly, scramble an egg and pour over the whole thing and cook until the egg is cooked, mixing every so often....dinner is served!

Hope you all are keeping cool where you are!

finally!

I had seen The Accidental Foodie by Neale Whitaker on Keiko's blog, Nordljus. I emailed Keiko to ask what she thought of the book. She emailed me about a post that she had written about the book (here). After reading her post and what she had written in her email, I was really interested in getting the book. I checked Amazon.com U.S., but this book could only be found on Amazon.com U.K. and in bookstores in Australia. :(

A little bummed, I checked all the bookstores in our area that sold books written in English. No luck.

So, I decided to check Japan's Amazon.com, to my surprise they had the book! Satoshi and I calculated the difference of Pounds to Yen and Australian dollars to Yen. The price on Amazon Japan was cheaper than the original price! (yeah!) Not very cheap in American dollars though, but I really wanted this book!

I ordered the book from Amazon Japan. I am still amazed at how trusting most companies handle their payment for orders via the phone or internet. Amazon Japan has a couple of unique ways of taking care of payment for orders via the internet. The most obvious is that you can charge it to your credit/charge card. The next way, is that you can go to the convenience store and pay for items with a charge slip. And the last way, is C.O.D. (cash on delivery). I don't use my credit card here in Japan, so I was looking at either the convenience store way or C.O.D.
At Amazon Japan, with a purchase over a certain amount, you can get free delivery service of your items. The catch is that you need to use the convenience store payment method. If you choose the C.O.D. method, they'll tack on $2.60 handling charge....

So, of course, I chose the convenience store method...the email message states that they will email you a payment number, take the number to a convenience store and pay. Then within 24 hours of payment, your purchases should be in your hands!

I placed my order on 7/22...and waited for the payment number to come, I checked my email account daily, getting a bit antsy....then finally, on 7/30, the payment number came!

I printed out the bar code, and took it to the nearest convenience store, they scanned in the number, and then I paid.

It is more than 24 hours since I have paid, hopefully it will come today....ooh, there's the doorbell.

It's here, it's here...I tore open the box and plastic wrapping.

Wow, this book is rather large! with very interesting commentary and beautiful photos...23 of Neale's "food heroes", sharing some of their favorite recipes along with personal interviews.

Can't wait to start reading this one! (Thanks again, Keiko!)

another way to send a smile

While visiting Meeta's blog, What's for Lunch Honey?, I noticed that someone had posted a comment about this link: Postcrossing.com.

I clicked on the link and immediately signed up. All you need to do, is sign up, they send you an email of the address you need to send your postcard to, send it off with an ID code that they give you (this is so that they can track the cards) and wait to receive your card from a different participant! How easy and fun!

This is my first postcard going to a new friend in Finland!

Can't wait until I get my first card from a new friend--in the meantime, I think I'll get another address (you can send out up to 5 cards to different people) and send out another card...

b.p.w.

I'm always excited to make a new friend, so when I saw this great event posted on Ivonne's Cream Puffs in Venice blog, I knew I just had to participate. The event is being hosted by Meeta of What's for Lunch Honey?, and is called Blogger Postcards of the World or B.P.W. It is a nice way to send a little smile to a fellow blogger overseas--plus, everyone loves to receive a letter or postcard in their mailbox, right?

The rules are that we have to take a photo of the postcard that we are sending out. We also have to post about the card that we receive.

Here's my postcard: a cool dish of somen with condiments. Somen is like angel hair pasta (cappellini) and is usually eaten cold during the hot and humid summers in Japan. The basket to the far upper-left has some fresh wasabi (mountain horseradish) and sudachi (limes). There is also tsuyu (a dipping sauce made of fish stock and shoyu(soy sauce)) in the little container between the basket and the somen. The little container to the left of the somen has yakumi (condiments) in it. Usually for somen the yakumi is negi (green onion) and shoga (ginger). This basket has negi and hanaho (shiso (beefsteak, perilla) flowers).

Also in summer, there is a "dish" called nagashi somen, in which a L-O-N-G piece of bamboo is hulled to form a "waterway" for the somen to travel, the somen flows down the bamboo chute in ice cold water, the "eaters" stand-by with chopsticks in one hand and the dipping sauce in another hand and catch the running somen in their chopsticks, dip it in the sauce and enjoy! WARNING: Be sure not to position yourself towards the end of the chute or you'll probably not be eating anything...either that, or position all the "eaters" that can't use chopsticks at the head of the chute--then you can eat everything that swishes past them :)

I chose this card because it has been so hot and humid here in Osaka. And I think that my blogger postcard buddy is probably experiencing the same type of summer (or maybe hotter?). Oh, and I wrote my message with blue ink. In Japan, especially during the summer, it is customary when writing letters or cards to use blue ink to give a "cool" feeling.

Hope I made your day and my blogger postcard buddy's day a little brighter (and cooler)!

Can't wait to see the postcard that I will receive!

What a nice way to start August! Thanks Meeta!

p.s. Today is my 2nd cousin, Kellen's 3rd birthday, Happy Birthday!