torrone

I think I told you that I like nougat. So, when I ran into this box made by Luigi D'Amico at the gourmet supermarket, I had to get it. I couldn't read the label, it was in Italian, but could pick out the words for nougat, chocolate and what I thought said nuts. So, I knew the combination had to be a winner.

And I was right. A thick chocolate nougat filled with whole hazelnuts! Rich enough to make you think you are eating fudge, but chewier. A thin wafer on the side so that you can grab it without getting your fingers messy. Soft enough but not sticky as to stick to your teeth.

If it weren't so expensive, I think I'd buy all the other flavors they had.

stollen

Last year I made stollen and posted about it here. This year, I found another recipe from a Japanese cookbook I have and tried it instead.

Stollen adapted from "Baked goods with Salt and Spice" makes 2 loaves
220g flour
50 g sugar
3g dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
20 grinds of cinnamon
1 egg
65 cc milk
75g butter

50g diced almonds
50g diced yuzu (citron) peel
50g dried cassis
handful of nibs

25g butter, melted
powdered sugar for dusting

Put the first 7 ingredients into a bowl, then add the egg and milk. Mix well.
Add the butter and with your hand start to knead the butter in. It will be hard at first, but with the warmth of your hand it will work itself into the dough.
Knead the dough a bit more.
Add the nuts, peel, nibs and fruit to the dough and knead.
When the dough comes together, put a piece of plastic wrap on top of the bowl and leave in a warm place to rise for about 1.5 to 2 hours.
When the dough rises 2-3 times the size, cut the dough into two. Take one of the pieces and flatten, fold into three overlapping the ends. Do this for the other piece.
Leave in a warm place for another hour.
Bake in 180C (350F) oven for 30-40 minutes, making sure that there is a nice brown color.
When the stollen comes out of the oven, drizzle the butter over the two loaves.
Dust with powdered sugar.
Enjoy!

The stollen in the cookbook looks a bit hard, like a country bread, but mine came out more like a cake/bread, with a nice muffin-top like crust.

Here is yesterday's sunrise...all peachy, orangy and warm.

tokumasa

A good way to keep warm during the winter in Japan is to eat a nice, hot bowl of curry udon.

Satoshi had the day off on Friday, so we went to Umeda. He had some errands to run, so I wandered around to kill some time. As I was wandering, I came upon a tiny restaurant that served curry udon.

This restaurant had their menu outside and also some articles from various magazines that they were featured in.

There is one foodie magazine in Kansai that "if you can be featured there, you can make it anywhere", or so to speak...this restaurant happened to be featured in it, so I knew it had to be good.

After Satoshi was done with his errands, we met up and I took him to the restaurant. It was peak lunch hour and it was packed!

I've never lunched alongside of salarymen (businessmen) until today, but you could feel the tension in the air as everyone was trying to eat before their lunch hour was over. There was very little chatter and no lingering, just eat and go!

It was elbow to elbow!

Everyone wore a paper bib--wouldn't want any curry splatters on your Armani suits.

I ordered the nami curry udon teishoku (regular curry udon meal). This came with a bowl of rice with a raw egg on top! In Kansai, you usually get rice alongside of noodles (talk about carbo loading--Satoshi ate my bowl of rice.) The curry starts off a bit sweet then the fire kicks in.

My nose was running and mouth was burning, but it was addictingly delicious.

Satoshi had the daily special--menchi katsu curry udon (hamburger cutlet curry udon). One large deep fried hamburger, cut into 4 pieces.

I really liked this curry udon, the soup was thick, not watery like the soup usually eaten with udon.

If you live in Japan, this place is actually a chain, hopefully you can find a restaurant near you.

Tokumasa
Osaka #4 Station Bldg (Osaka Daiyon Building) B2
Phone:06.6347.1903
Open 11:00-19:00, no smoking during lunchtime (11:00-14:00)

There are only 19 seats at this place, so go early to get yours.

kobe luminarie

Yesterday, I met my friend, Midori for a late lunch. It has been awhile seen we've seen each other because she works really long hours and doesn't get much time off.

She took me to a nice cafe called Green House. This cafe was actually someone's house that was renovated into a cafe. You need to walk through a little forest (really!) to get to the cafe. The interior was dimly lit and there were a LOT of couples. We had the daily special, pork cutlet with peanut sauce. There was much too much sauce on top and the cutlet was quite oily, but we had a nice time chatting and eating.

After lunch, we got ready to see the Luminarie. The luminarie is a memorial for the lives lost in the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 Kobe Earthquake and also a way to encourage the people who survived to keep perservering. Satoshi and I actually went to see this our first year in Japan (2001). There were so many people this time around. Doesn't it look like everyone is waiting to see a parade or something?

You have to line up around two blocks before actually coming upon the Promenade. These illuminated structures stand about 20m high (about 65 feet). Every year the theme is different, though I can't tell the difference, it always looks beautiful.

This year's theme is Hikari no kigen (The era of light). An Italian designer always comes up with the beautiful designs.

You should have seen how many people were taking photos with their cell phones! If you look carefully at this photo, you can see all the cell phones lit up taking photos.

In front of the Kobe City Office, you'll see this huge clock. It is called the Flower clock because the face is made from flowers. The face changes with the seasons, so it is nice to check it when you go to visit. This time around, the face is of a mouse/rat. Next year will be the Year of the Rat in Chinese Astrology.

It was made up of many pots of habotan (literally leaf peony, scientifically known as Brassica oleracea var. acephala or in lay terms Ornamental Kale)

Hope you have a nice week.

Green House
5-5-25 Kotono-o-cho
Chuo, Kobe
Phone: 078.262.7044
Open 11:00am-5:00am

szechuan pepper & salt shrimp

Remember I told you that Nate gave me a LOT of szechuan pepper? Well, he also e-mailed me a recipe for szechuan pepper & salt shrimp. I sort of deviated from it and came up with this.

I also want to apologize to the cashier at the market. I thought I had put only 10 shrimp into my plastic bag, and you charged me for 10...When I came home and cleaned the shrimp, I had 12. Oops...Sorry!

Szechuan Pepper & Salt Shrimp Serves 2

12 shrimp, deveined, rinsed, dried
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon Szechuan pepper
1/4 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice
2 teaspoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons olive oil

After cleaning the shrimp, dry well, you may have to dry them twice.
Grind the salt, pepper with a mortar and pestle or if you have a spice mill, whiz it.
In a ziploc bag, add the the dried shrimp, cornstarch and half of the salt, pepper and 5-spice.
Put the oil into a pan and heat.
With your hand, take some cornstarch and sprinkle it over the oil. If it bubbles, the oil is hot enough.
Add the shrimp and cook for a total of 1 or 2 minutes, turning the shrimp on all sides.
When the shrimp is cooked, take out from pan and sprinkle the rest of the salt mixture.
Enjoy!

NOTES: The cornstarch adds a light "crust" to the shrimp and hot out of the pan is the best way to eat this...make sure to have some rice and beer on the side!

Thanks again Nate for the pepper and recipe!

michael mischer chocolates

Our friend, Michael Mischer recently sent us a sample of his new chocolate bar. It was a 38% Venezuelan Criollo with shichimi (Japanese 7-spice) & dried orange.

When I first put a piece into my mouth, the chocolate was creamy and reminded me of caramel. The orange pieces were very flavorful, and mixed with the creamy chocolate, then the shichimi snuck up nicely on me toward the end.

It was a wonderful balance of flavors.

Gochisoosama (Thank you Michael)!

b.l.t.

Recently, Nate of Hwnpake in Okinawa, sent me a care package (Thank you!) Inside was a package of BACON, mayo, egg noodles, wafers, lots of szechuan peppercorns, seasoned salts and haw flakes.

So, the other day for lunch, Satoshi and I had B.L.T.s, though you can't see the bacon, it was super crispy and delicious! (If there is one thing that I can't find on mainland Japan, it is crispy bacon. Though you'd know that already if you've been reading this blog.)

I also hadn't had haw flakes in ages to the point where I had forgotten how they tasted. Still it was nice to receive all those goodies.

Thanks Nate you really made my day!

Have a nice weekend everyone!