ogurasanso & yamecha

In 2005, I wished that Ogurasanso would make my favorite chocolate covered kakinotane in dark chocolate. Three years later, my wish came true...

Omoisomeshi are spicy kakinotane rice crackers covered with high quality Belgium chocolate. This year, Ogurasanso came out with dark chocolate & matcha. (The original flavors are strawberry, milk chocolate & white chocolate.)

On a recent trip to the Ogurasanso shop in Takarazuka, I also picked up Kyonodaikoku which are a type of amanatto (ama means sweet and natto means fermented). These large black beans from Tanba (a city in Kyoto prefecture), are soaked in sugar water then dried (I think).

Both were a great snack and went nicely with a hot cup of yamecha. Yamecha is the name of Fukuoka's sencha (green tea).

p.s. today is the Honolulu Marathon in Hawaii...it is 10 years ago that I ran walked the Honolulu Marathon...boy, how time flies.

kinoko

So far, every Thursday, Daiei has been having awesome sales on veggies. Almost everything was 99 yen (about US$.99).

I found a recipe in The French Market, that uses mushrooms or kinoko as they are called here.

This recipe was really easy and fast.

Adapted from "The French Market" : serves 2

2 pats of salted butter
1 tablespoon EVOO
1 package each of mushrooms (shimeji(tricoloma), maitake (hen of woods) & eringi), cleaned and separated
half a handful of dried, sliced garlic
5 tablespoons cooking sake (rice wine)
1 tablespoon milk
several grinds of fresh pepper
2 slices campagne bread, toasted
chopped italian parsley

Heat the butter and EVOO on medium heat.
Add the mushrooms and coat everything well.
After about 5 minutes, add the garlic, the sake and milk
Add pepper.
Bring the heat up to high, cook and stir until the liquid evaporates.
While waiting for the liquid to evaporate, toast your bread.
Serve directly on toast or in plates with toast on the side.
Garnish with parsley.

NOTES: This recipe calls for dry white wine, heavy cream, chives and brioche, but I wasn't planning to buy these specially for this recipe, so I subbed sake, milk & parsley and campagne. It was delicious with the bread coming straight out of the toaster.

winner + caffera galleria

First of all, I want to thank all of you who entered the giveaway. It was really interesting reading your comments. I hope that you will be inspired to travel to Japan, re-visit or explore new areas. I used a random number generator and came up with the winner....the winner of the giveaway...is Jenster! Please email me (kat (dot) nsatoshi (at) gmail (dot) com) your snail mail address, I'm going to try to send the box out on Monday. Thanks again for all of your comments, maybe I'll have another giveaway in 2009.

I want to tell you about a cafe that I ate at on Tuesday.

Caffera Galleria is located in Daimaru Umeda on the 4th floor. They are related to this shop, but they have better food.

After French class, I couldn't decide what I wanted to eat for lunch , walked around a bit, and found myself here.

It was my first time to try this place, and I am glad I did. I had their Toscana-style salad plate (1260 yen about US$12.60). It came with your choice of drink. I chose a cappuccino. The regular price of a cappuccino is 630 yen (about US$6.30), so I thought the price of the lunch was kind of reasonable.

This salad reminded me of a Nicoise salad. The bread was olive bread and the dressing had anchovies in it.

It was a good sized portion and filled me up.

I wouldn't mind eating here again sometime.

Caffera Galleria
Daimaru Umeda-4F
Phone: 06.6348.3322
Days closed according to Daimaru Umeda's schedule

an apple a day (and laughter is the best medicine)

It is o-seibo season, the time when you send gifts to say thank you to those who have helped you out during the year. About this time of year, one of Satoshi's classmates from college sends us a big box of apples.

My grandma once told me that instead of being greedy, if you know you can't eat something by yourself, you should share. My grandma is a smart lady and I respect her a lot. So, I usually give some away because there is no way we would be able to eat them all by ourselves. In Japanese we call this o-susowake.

So, the other day, we ate one and they have these natural sugar spots in the middle....delicious! (Thank you!)

I have to share this "Satoshi story". Whenever we go to sleep, Satoshi always wears an eye mask. I think this is because our curtains used to be thinner and the sunlight would bother him, plus I usually wake up before him to make breakfast and turn on the lights.

Anyway, the other night, he had his mask on and with the back of his hand, he ran it over my pillow. He immediately said, "Kat, your face feels unusally cooler...."

I burst into laughter, he takes off the mask and realizes he was feeling my pillow and not my face...did I make you smile or laugh? I hope so.

Have a great weekend!

kasu-jiru

Kasu-jiru is a soup made with sake lees.

I don't like this soup because the sake smell is strong. Satoshi on the other hand, loves this soup.

My MIL served this to us the other time we visited her last month. I picked at it and eventually gave my serving to Satoshi, when it came time for us to leave, my MIL gave me some extra kasu to make some kasu-jiru for Satoshi, as she knows it is his favorite.

Satoshi comes home late every night, but for the past couple of weeks, Satoshi has been working extra late. His company will be changing to a new computer system soon, so they are trying to prepare for the switch over.

Since he usually comes home so late, I don't serve him a proper dinner because eating a full meal at midnight or 1 am wouldn't give him enough time to digest it all before going to bed.

So, in the morning, I send him to work with a musubi and some tea, this is for him to eat at about 7 or 8 in the evening. Then when he comes home, I usually serve him salads or soups like this or even this so that he won't have to go to bed feeling hungry. Then the next morning, I try to feed him a hearty breakfast. (When we first moved to Japan, I would feed him a full meal late at night and in the morning, he wouldn't be hungry and want to skip breakfast.)

Anyway, here is how I made the soup.

Salmon kasu-jiru : serves 2
40 grams sake kasu (sake lees)
1/2 a stick of gobo (about 8-inches long), whittled
1/2 a carrot, sliced
1/2 a sweet potato, cubed
1 piece of salmon, take bones off, cut into bite sized pieces

Add 3 cups of water, put veggies in and bring to a boil
After 10 minutes, check to see if sweet potato is soft
Turn down heat to low and add salmon,cook for 5 minutes.
Add kasu and mix well. (It should "melt" into the soup)
After kasu is well mixed into the soup add some salt and shoyu to taste.
Serve.

NOTES: Most times daikon is used in this soup, but I would suggest using whatever veggies you have on hand. Also, if you don't have salmon, just leave it out. My MIL served her soup with just veggies.

giveaway!

I love to enter giveaways, I also like to send care packages. I think it is about time that I send something to you.

So, to all my readers out there, I would like to send ONE lucky reader, picked at random, a boxful of....STUFF!

The contents of the box will be these tea cups and dessert plates for two (the plates are about 6-inches in diameter), along with some sweets. I hope what I put in the box will meet customs requirements where you are, and not be anything you may be allergic to, if not, I'm sorry in advance!

All you have to do to enter is tell me where in Japan you have been...what? you've never been to Japan? okay, then tell me where you'd most like to visit in Japan...oh no, you live in Japan? then tell me where in Japan you haven't been but would like to visit.

You have until Friday, December 12th, 11:59 pm (Japan time) to enter...what are you waiting for?

Thanks for entering, comments now closed.

UPDATE: to see what was inside the package, click here.

pignon

About a 10 minute walk from where we live, is a tiny shop called Pignon. I have bought their creme brulee in the past and have tried some of their cakes (pre-blog).

This past Sunday for our tea time, Satoshi and I walked to Pignon to pick out some sweets. Here is what we chose:

Satoshi chose a slice of a caramel banana roll. A whole banana is rolled in caramel cream and cake...330 yen (about US$3.30)

He also chose the Shibukawa Marron roll. Shibukawa is the inner brown skin that is on the chestnut. The cream is coffee and chestnut...280 yen (about US$2.80)

I chose the strawberry shortcake. This is different from strawberry shortcake in the States. A light fluffy yellow cake is layered with whipped cream and strawberries...300 yen (about US$3)

I also chose the blueberry cheesecake. This was a baked cheesecake with a gelatin blueberry layer on top. I was disappointed with the crust of this cheesecake but everything else was delicious.

It is a good thing that cake shops in our area take some walking to, otherwise I think I would be there everyday.

Pignon
3-5 Hanjo
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.725.6633
Open 10:30-21:00
Closed Mondays