shin-tamanegi gohan

I enjoy the television shows that visit farms.

Most times, the farmer's wife has great ideas for using the veggies that they grow.

Like this one...Shin-tamanegi gohan.

In Japan, Spring veggies are tender and sweet.

Shin-tamanegi (literally "new onion") are super tender.

If you are not careful, they will bruise and rot quickly.

Anyway, the show I was watching visited a farm that grows these onions.

The wife made a rice recipe in her rice cooker and put a whole onion in before cooking.

There wasn't a recipe online to try so I ad-libbed, basing what I did for the shoyu butter corn yakionigiri recipe that I use.

When I made this, I used 1 cup of rice, 1 cup of water and 1 softball sized shintamanegi.

After cooking, the onion is so soft that you can break it up with the shamoji (rice paddle)!

NOTES: If you use a softball sized onion, cook it with 2 cups rice & 2 cups water. If you use a fist sized onion, then 1 cup rice & 1 cup water will do.

The rice gets a little softer than normal because I think the liquid from the onion adds to the cooking water.

This was nice served with steak and also with an oozy egg the next morning.

I didn't season the rice because we enjoy the flavor of the onion as is, but feel free to put salt and pepper to taste when serving.

I know you may not be able to get this type of onion where you are, but if you happen to be in Japan when shin-tamanegi are in season, I hope you will give this a try.

I'm making this again.

lunch with a view

Today, I went to Square for lunch because someone posted on social media that the cherry blossoms were in bloom in their area. (click on the photo to view the video)

From the second floor (their cafe space), you can see this.

I had their taco rice & iced coffee...1300 yen (tax included).

It was quite filling but I liked how they put the cheese under the broiler and the egg was nice and oozy.

At the mall too, everything was in full bloom.

I forgot to share this video of Sakuranomiya with you yesterday... (click on the photo)

Hopefully the weather will hold up over the weekend, so we can check out more blooms.

sakura walks

Today was sunny...if you were in the shade it was a bit nippy, but if you were out in the sun, it was quite...hot!

I walked from Umeda to Sakuranomiya.

I've been here several times...it is an area that has cherry trees along the river.

(click on this photo and I hope it will take you to Youtube to view the video)

From Sakuranomiya, I walked back towards Umeda and through Ogimachi Park.

It was a nice day to be out and about.

sakura walks

Monday, the weather was really cloudy and since I ran some errands, I didn't really get to check out any cherry blossoms.

Tuesday, the winds were krazy (like a typhoon) and rainy. AND we had a cold snap...brr!

Today, I went to check out my "usual" spots...(If you click on the photo, it should run the short video.)

Most of the cherry blossoms were still intact, but there were quite a bit of petals on the ground.

Tomorrow is supposed to be better weather, so I hope to check out more cherry blossoms...

matcha pudding

Starbucks recently came out with a matcha pudding...kind of like their custard pudding, but with a matcha sauce at the bottom and matcha mixed into the pudding itself.

I liked how this wasn't too sweet.

The maple covered nuts were nice too (pictured on the side).

The weather has been flip-flopping between warm and cool, making it hard to figure out how to dress...

hope your week is going well.

sunday

Sunday after the rains on Saturday, it was still grey and drizzly.

We woke up early and checked out our favorite street lined with cherry trees.

There were a lot of petals on the ground but the bulk of the blooms were still on the tree.

Then, we zipped over to Kyoto to visit MIL.

The area near the Botanical Garden was quite soggy, but there were a couple of weeping cherry trees that were in full bloom.

Along Kamo River, more trees were in full bloom.

Despite the drizzles and grey, I was surprised there were a lot of people out and about.

We picked up some Kamo Donuts. And had them after lunch. (coconut chocolate for me, cream filled cruller for Satoshi and chocolate covered custard filled "monster" for MIL)

After lunch, MIL let us clean a little bit, though we did not even making a dent in what needs to get done...sigh.

Still, I'm glad we got to visit with her and see some sakura.

sakura walks

Thursday, the weather was forecast for rain in the afternoon, so I got out and about just before lunch.

Asahigaoka...each house has a cherry tree planted in front, making for a great neighborhood to walk during this time of year. (I cropped out the dude who was crouching down on the road to take his shot...he got tooted at several times by several cars!!)

A little up the road is this area...I want to be the houses facing these group of trees...beautiful, yeah?!

I saw someone's photo somewhere on social media and copied the idea using the traffic mirror and the trees...

This walkway in front of a school has many cherry trees and makes a pretty "tunnel".

I went back to take a photo of this weeping cherry which I had seen the other day but was too chicken to ask to take a photo of it then because it looked like they were having some kind of dignitary type event there...

Sonpachiyakujin's weeping cherry looked more white than pink.

Then I went through Suigetsu Park.

Kinda grey but at least I was able to check them out before the rains.