thank you

Thank you to blog friend, Jalna, for brightening my day with a care package the other day.

Some of her homemade note cards and energy bars.

I shared these energy bars with some friends that we met up on Saturday.

Will write more about that outing soon!

I really appreciate your thoughtfulness Jalna!

on the lanai

What do you have growing on your lanai/garden?

I just planted some kale, chard, beets, Italian parsley and cilantro. (Though I think the Italian parsley seeds are old already)

I also picked up these two brussels sprout plants. At 55 yen each, they were a bargain.

As for flowers, I planted ranunculus. And it looks like the freesia is coming up in the pots too.

I covered several planters with plastic since it has been a bit nippy in the mornings and evenings.

I hope your garden is doing well, have a nice week.

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.

blueberries

I recently came across some blueberries grown in Nara prefecture.

The berries weren't too big but these were a little tart and a little sweet.

Good with yogurt and homemade granola.

It's Friday here, I hope you have a nice weekend!

niku bar mooh

There is a bar that opened rather recently near our train station called Niku Bar Mooh (which literally translates to Meat Bar Moo)

Most of the items on their menu starts from 500 yen.

They don't have a large beer selection, mostly cocktails.

Meals start off with their tsukidashi (amuse bouche) which on this day was a sliced duck and thinly sliced onion with a vinaigrette...648 for two servings.

We ordered their caesar salad, this comes with a poached egg on top...626 yen.

Ratatouille, this also comes with a poached egg...626 yen.

Shrimp and button mushroom ajillo. Shrimp and button mushrooms come out boiling in this garlic olive oil "soup"...842 yen.

They serve it with 4 slices of baguette...up the bread slices please!

Sausages with the bone in.

Must've been chicken because that was what bone was used...626 yen

Steak...um, you need to rest the steak before cutting and also, maybe not serve it so rare.

Turned all the fries underneath an unappetizing red. 150 grams for 1620 yen.

With drinks, our total was 6554 yen (tax included). Not bad with drinks, but the steak really turned me off.

Would I go back here? Probably not.

Still, I'm glad we tried them.

Niku Bar Mooh
2-1-10 Ishibashi
Ikeda, Osaka
Phone: 072.760.5539
Hours: 17:30-24:30
Closed Mondays

using up the veggies in the fridge (and lanai) soup

Last week, I had wanted to use up all the veggies in my fridge.

I sauteed some onions until they were transparent, and then added 2 cups of water.

Then I added some pumpkin and when the pumpkin was cooked, I added some chicken broth.

I then whizzed the soup with my hand held blender until there were no lumps.

Envisioning fried renkon (lotus root) chips, I fried thinly sliced pieces. Unfortunately, I drained them on a paper towel and they kind of steamed, so they weren't too crispy.

After setting aside the renkon, I sauteed some kale from the lanai with some red bell pepper in some olive oil.

I ladled a bowl of the pumpkin soup and then topped it with the renkon, kale, red bell and then sliced some okra.

Dinner was served.

It definitely isn't soup weather here yet, but I'm glad I was able to use up the veggies in my fridge and the kale from the lanai.

I'm also sending this soup to Deb for her Souper Sunday. It's been awhile since I've sent her a soup. If you've never checked out her round-up, please do, there are always creative and delicious creations there.

hikone plus plus

Sunday, we woke up early because we wanted to head out to Hikone.

It had been several years since we had been there and even more since we paid our respects to MIL's family graves.

We stopped at Umeda to buy tickets for JR. When Satoshi walked up to the counter he asked the guy if they had any discount tickets, the guy replied no...then he checked a manual and voila!

An all day pass to travel anywhere listed on the ticket in Kansai.

One way to Hikone would be 1940 yen, for this ticket 3600 yen, it would be a little less than a round-trip ticket (3880 yen)...Satoshi felt like he hit the jackpot with this.

As we rode JR to Hikone, Satoshi looked at different travel guides and decided that he wanted to check out some places on the JR line.

Since this ticket allowed us to get off and on the train this was perfect. Usually in Japan, when you buy a ticket they only allow you to get off at the specified destination.

When we arrived at Hikone, we bought some flowers for MIL's family graves. And then we made the trek to Soanji, which is located on the Yume-Kyobashi Castle Road.

Over the years I think this road has become a bit more touristy. But, I like the way they make all the buildings look like you are in an Edo time period.

After calling MIL to reconfirm the exact location of the graves, we said a few prayers and then decided to look for something for lunch.

We stopped into Lu Pan, a tiny burger shop serving Omi Beef Burgers. Omi Beef is the brand beef of the area.

I ordered their standard which is shoyu based. Satoshi went with their burger with curry sauce. We also shared a half order of their fries and shared a coke.

Total 1560 yen tax included.

The burgers were very moist and the buns very airy. Even though the guy running this place had absolutely no personality, the food was delicious.

Then we were off to Yogo.

When I asked Satoshi what was there, he said, "a lake".

Before hopping on the train though, we got some dorayaki from Kotetsu. Sweet bean paste for Satoshi and walnut sweet bean paste for me.

A nice snack and a nice place to rest our feet.

From Hikone it was 9 stations to Yogo. When you get off the train, you'll know that the only thing to see here is "the lake".

There are no shops near the train station, just a walk to "the lake".

It was beautiful to see Lake Yogo.

Since there weren't many trains running, we hopped back on the next train and headed to Torahime.

This is where Satoshi's grandma used to live. He was in awe at how small the river (stream) he used to play in was and how close the walk was from the train station to his grandma's house was.

Apparently the house that Satoshi's grandma used to live in is no longer there, but it was nice for him to re-connect with the area.

Since we had some time before the next train, we popped into a new bakery that is in the JR Torahime station and bought some snacks.

I had this blueberry cream cheese walnut bread, super soft. Just the right amount of sweet from the blueberry preserves, a little tartness from the cream cheese and some crunch from the walnuts.

A nice thing about this bakery is that everything was 108 yen! A bargain if you've ever been to bakeries in Japan.

Then it took us some time from Torahime to get to Omi Hachiman, so by the time we arrived in Omi Hachiman it was 17:30.

The place we had wanted to have dinner at was fully booked so we jumped on the train and went to Yasu (2 stations over from Omi Hachiman).

Kurogama is a restaurant in a 100 year old house.

Satoshi and I both ordered the luxurious Omi beef course. He had 5 different cuts while I had 3 different cuts of beef.

Dinner started out with this beef shabu salad. The dressing was citrusy and really brightened the flavors. The meat was thinly sliced and super tender.

Next came the slightly seared beef sushi...talk about melt in your mouth!

Here are the 3 cuts that I ordered, sorry I can't remember what the waiter said they were!

To cook them they heat up a ceramic disk and you add a little nub of butter. You can cook it as rare or as well done as you wish.

Rice is cooked on a very old stove and is served with pickles and their shigure-ni.

I've made shigure-ni in the past. And we both agreed they didn't need to serve the pickles, just the shigure-ni with the rice was perfect!

To end the meal they served us some yuzu (citron) sherbet with fruits. I loved that there were bits of yuzu in this!

What a wonderful meal! we raved on and on about how soft the meat was. At 5800 yen and 7000 yen plus tax, it wasn't a cheap meal, but we agreed it was worth every penny!

A very long day, but we got to do so much. We were really happy with that train pass because it allowed us to see more than we would've had we got just the regular fare.

Hope you enjoyed this adventure too!

Lu Pan
located along Yume-Kyobashi Castle Road
Hikone, Shiga

Kotetsu
1-2 Tachibana
Hikone, Shiga
Phone: 0749.26.3838
Hours: 9:30-17:30

Amour
JR Torahime Station
Phone: 0749.73.8066
Closed Thursdays
Hours: 10:00-18:00

Kurogama
2343-1 Koshinohara Takeda
Yasu, Shiga
Phone: 077.587.3191
Closed Mondays
Lunch 11:30-14:30
Dinner (weekdays) 18:00-22:00, (weekends) 17:30-22:00