funerals (p.s.)

There were a couple more tidbits I forgot to mention about funerals in Japan.

One was about memorial services. As Barbara reminded me in the comments (thanks Barbara!)....In Japan, there is the 49 day service, 3 year service, 7 year service and other odd numbered year services. I'm not too certain as to why these services are performed on odd number years. Actually, most memorial services end up being done on even number years because of the way the Japanese count the years of death. The day that the person passes away is considered the first year that the person has passed. So, when the 3rd year memorial service comes around, it is actually the 2nd year.

This is also true of birthdays in Japan. The day you are born is considered the 1st year, so on your next birthday you are 2. (I think I like counting the years as they are and not "upping them" any more than necessary, don't you?)

The other thing which I forgot to mention which is really important is NEVER stick your chopsticks straight up in a bowl of rice or a dish of food. This is how the Japanese offer food to the deceased.

And a tidbit from Hawaii, is that we never cover our musubi (rice balls) totally in nori(laver), there has to be a little rice showing. I'm not really sure why, but I think it has to do with the whole musubi being black if it is covered.

I think that is all the tidbits, if I remember any more I'll let you know, or if you have any more, I'd love to hear them.

dinners & breakfast

As you'll probably notice I've been hooked on "the carrot salad"--it is so simple to make and I love the refreshing flavor...

Friday's dinner was gyo-burg (gyoza burgers) with carrot salad and steamed green beans with a lemon oregano vinaigrette, rice and kurumi tsukudani.

Saturday's breakfast was egg salad sandwiches made with Best Foods mayo which I got from Nate (HwnPakeOkinawa). Growing up with Best Foods, there really is no other mayo. (Thanks Nate!) We also had carrot salad and steamed green beans, plus white peach.

Sunday's dinner buta kimchee (pork with kimchee) omlette, more carrot salad, the last of the kurumi tsukudani and rice.

Last night's dinner minced pork with corn in a miso butter sauce over rice with carrot salad.

This recipe comes from a cookbook I have called "Natsu ni oishii kondate" by Orange Page.
Serves 2
1/2 tablespoon oil
1 clove garlic
150g minced pork
1 corn on the cob
100g green beans

400g cooked rice

Sauce:
1 teaspoon tobanjan (chili paste)
1/2 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons miso (soy bean paste)
2 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
2 tablespoons sake (rice wine)
2 tablespoons water

ground white sesame seeds
1 tablespoon butter

Preparation:
cut the kernels off of the cob and rinse.
cut the beans into 1 cm pieces, rinse.

1. Heat the oil on low and add the garlic
2. When you can smell the garlic, add the pork, turn heat up to high and stir
3. When the pork has turned color, add the corn and beans and stir
4. Coat everything with the oil and add the sauce ingredients.
5. Turn heat down to medium and coat everything in the sauce.
6. When everything starts to turn thick add the butter to finish.
7. Serve over rice and top with a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

NOTES: You could use canned corn, but I'm not too sure on the portions. When you add the sauce ingredients, make sure that the miso is completely "melted" and the sauce is smooth. I didn't have white sesame seeds, so I used black ones. Also, if you are watching your calories you could probably omit the butter at the end.

Enjoy!

funerals

Not a very pleasant subject to talk about, but since Satoshi has been going to funerals and wakes lately, I wanted to share with you an experience I had in my second year (2002) here--I actually had a temporary job working for two days for a funeral management service.

Here's part of my email that was dated August 20, 2002.

"On Sunday, I got a call about a new temporary job. This job was for a wake and funeral. At first, I thought "yikes, someone's funeral..." In Hawaii, most people's family and friends help with these things. Most funerals in Hawaii are generally small and rather private, in the sense that only family and friends are involved. But in Japan, some families enlist the help of funeral homes and funeral management services. These service companies do EVERYTHING, from serving guests tea to setting up tents and signs. I was surprised at how much gift giving is important even at funerals. They give gifts such as green tea or even have catalogs where you can order what you want to those who attended the funeral! And they sometimes even give these gifts to people who attend the wake.

In Hawaii, they don't really give gifts to the people that attend, I think this is mostly due to the influence of the sugar cane era. In the sugar cane era, money was very tight and the sugar cane workers lived in plantation camps. When someone passed away, they would collect money from amongst the camp members and give it to the deceased person's family. Usually, nothing was given in return, but the family gave thanks by giving some food to eat and something to drink to those that attended the funeral. This is why at the end of most funerals in Hawaii, there is a little buffet table.

Anyway, this was my first time to attend a funeral in Japan. I usually don't like to "play the gaijin card" (the fact that I'm a foreigner), but working at this particular wake and funeral I was frazzled. The whole time I was "on egg shells", trying not to offend the family or piss off my bosses. Everything, like all types of ceremonies has to be just so...One boss telling you to do something, so you drop what you are doing to do as you've been told. Then another boss comes along and says, "what are you doing? you should be doing this..." Then of course, the first boss comes back and wonders why you haven't done what they told you to do, all the while you have to bow and say hai hai (yes, yes)....AARGH!

Some interesting observations...they cut off flowers from the arrangements at the funeral to have family members put it into the casket. The hearse is in the shape of a little temple and is mounted on the car (some are really flashy with gold leaf!). On a hot, humid August day, we also had to wear a uniform that included a vest and white gloves and had to bow as the deceased arrived for the funeral and also as the family left with the deceased. People attending the funeral all wear black. Men wear black suits with white shirts and black neckties. Women wear black dresses with a string of pearls (no other type of jewelry is allowed) and black stockings. Even your handkerchief has to be black.

When the person who attended the funeral returns home, you are supposed to throw salt at them (the person receives the salt at the funeral). This is to stop the spirit of the deceased from entering your home."

Today, Satoshi experienced going to the crematory. In Japan, the family passes the bones of the deceased from one person to the next with chopsticks to put into the urn. (For this reason, when passing food to someone, you should never pass it from your chopstick to the other person's chopsticks.)

Still, this is an interesting part of Japanese culture, don't you think?

fruits of summer

More and more fruits are coming into season here. If you remember last month, there was Delaware grapes and Quincy melon.

This month, meet Sakuranbo from Yamagata prefecture. These cherries actually remind me of Rainier cherries (maybe they are of the same variety?) They weren't very sweet and actually a bit tart. I was surprised at the price too, about US$3 for a little over 200 grams.

And white peaches from Fukuoka prefecture. These are called Hakuho. The skins are a bit bitter, but the insides are juicy and sweet.

I had to cut away at the insides to get it off of the stone (it was that ripe!) 2 of these delicious peaches were US$6! Luckily, when I bought them they were in a container with holes so I could smell them before buying.

The fruits and veggies are probably the only part of Japan summers that I enjoy.

Hope you have a good week.

uji

The other day, I had seen a live broadcast of an area filled with ajisai (hydrangea) and found out that it was located in Uji. In Japan, ajisai is usually in full bloom during the rainy season.

While the rain is coming down, it is kind of nice to see these pom-poms of pastel colors brightening up a gloomy day. So, despite the rain, thunder and lightning and that the rainy season hasn't officially started here, we went to Uji--located in the South-Eastern part of Kyoto. If you remember, I went there a couple of months ago during the Spring with my Aunty and her friend.

The temple that these ajisai were at was called Mimurotoji. It was a 15 minute walk from the Mimuroto station. The temple is actually located at the top of these steep stairs. (We are looking forward to going back in July to see their hasu no hana (lotus flowers)).

At the bottom of the steep stairs, there is a beautiful garden with about 10,000 ajisai plants.

Despite the weather, the flowers were beautiful. And I was amazed at how many different varieties there were.

I was also surprised at how red the leaves of this maple tree was, it reminded me of something you might see during the Fall.

Since Uji is known for their green tea, we had lunch at a place called Magozaemon and had their zaru udon (cold wheat noodles) with green tea in them. The noodles were really chewy and delicious.

After lunch, we walked along the shopping street and you could smell tea roasting. Ho-ji cha is a very smoky flavored tea and is actually roasted green tea. This is what a roaster looks like.

You could even see tea plants along the roadside.

We also got some cha-dango (rice cakes made with green tea) and warabi mochi (bracken rice cakes). Bracken is a fern and the young shoots are turned into a powder to make this mochi. In Osaka, we usually eat this with kinako (ground roasted soy beans), but in Uji, they eat their warabi mochi with what else, green tea powder. Both were nice treats and as we were going home, the sun came out.

rakkyo (part 2)

Can you believe that 20 days has passed and the rakkyo is ready?

I tasted a couple as I was packaging some for o-susowake (to give away). They were a bit salty, not very sweet, crunchy, the onion flavor is still there and there is a little zing from the chilies.

I'm glad I made this, it was a good first experience and I think I'll do it again next year.

Have a nice weekend!

foodie thursday

Satoshi had to go to Tokyo for business today, so we woke up earlier than usual. After sending him off, I went back to sleep. An hour later, I had my breakfast and got ready for my foodie adventure.

I headed out to Higashi Osaka (East Osaka) because of a recent article in a foodie magazine noting several pastry chefs. Today, was a beautiful day, but awfully humid!

Unfortunately, the first place on my list was closed. This shop didn't have a website, so I didn't know they were closed. The chef is in France at the moment and won't be back until the end of the month.

My next stop was Tamatsukuri to a shop which is owned by an Englishman--Broadhursts. The shop was very open and welcoming. I picked up some of their baked treats (some scones, financiers, shortbread, lemon polenta, a fig cake made with Guiness beer and an oatmeal bar). He also had a very impressive showcase with refrigerated desserts. I'll have to take Satoshi next time.

I was then on my way to Uehommachi. I read in this magazine about a chocolatier that also makes different kinds of desserts too. One thing about getting information off of the internet is that the information isn't always the most recent. After making a few phone calls and asking people on the street, I found the place---Nakatani.

I had their lunch set--shrimp and avocado tartine. This open-faced sandwich really hit the spot. There were many other housewives lunching there too, so it was a bit chatty and noisy, and no smoking allowed.

Dessert also accompanied lunch, I chose the creme au chocolat--a rich chocolate mousse and a little dark chocolate bonbon.

After re-fueling, I was back on my way and headed to Tanimachi 4-chome.

There is a little shop called La Plage. This shop was featured on a local program a couple of years back and also featured in the same foodie magazine. They are known mostly for their refrigerated desserts, but since I was still gallivanting, I just picked up their matcha cookies, sables and dark chocolate covered almonds.

Nakatani also has a chocolate shop in Tanimachi 4-chome, so I went to check them out. They are located in the basement of a condo. It was kind of like going to a secret chocolate hideaway. I picked up 3 bars--Madagascar 66%, Caraibe 64% and Quatre vingts 80% (a mixture of 18 different Forestero, Criollo & Trinitario beans). (This chocolate shop is no longer at this location)

When I came home, I was surprised to find a memo in my post. I had answered a questionnaire from a foodie magazine which entered me for a chance to win a gift of my choice. I chose a chocolate tasting packet and won! 8 little neapolitans ranging from 29%-99%. I'm a bit worried about these since the guy that delivered it didn't have it refrigerated...still, I'm excited about winning.

Despite the heat and some obstacles, it was still a fun day.

Broadhursts (UPDATE: 2016 they moved locations)
2-25-12 Tamatsukuri
Chuo-ku, Osaka
Phone: 06-6762-0009
Closed: Mondays

La Plage
3-7 Kitashinmachi
Chuo-ku, Osaka
Phone: 06-6949-3938
Closed: Mondays

Nakatani
6-6-27 Uehommachi
Tennoji-ku, Osaka
Phone: 06-6773-5240
Closed: Mondays

Nakatani-chocolate shop
1-4-1 Yariyamachi
Chuo-ku, Osaka
Phone: 06-6943-0023
Closed: Mondays (UPDATE: this shop is no longer at this location)