variation

I wanted to use more of the ginger syrup I had made so I thought it would be good to use in sanshoku gohan.

I've written about sanshoku gohan before here.

I minced up the ginger from the syrup and cut the eringi up smaller too. Then followed the recipe and sauteed minced pork until the liquid evaporated.

Usually for the other parts of the sanshoku gohan, you add seasoning to the egg and veggies, but since the pork was very flavorful, I instead, just wilted some spinach and scrambled some eggs without adding more seasonings.

This was delicious as a bento and perfect for dinner.

danjiri matsuri

Danjiri matsuri (wooden cart festival) is one of the more famous festivals in Osaka.

This is held in Kishiwada city to be exact.

The more famous festival for this city was held in September (actually during the time we went to France). October's festival is not as popular, it is held on the outskirts of Kishiwada city and in my opinion, still very festive.

We left our house at 7-ish and got to Higashi-Kishiwada at about 9-ish.

When we arrived, a danjiri (wooden cart) was being taken to the neighborhood shrine for a prayer and blessing.

Most of the danjiri are very decorative and ornate with intricately carved deity figures and is in the shape of a shrine.

Many neighborhoods participate in this festival with danjiri representing their area.

There is one person who stands atop the danjiri, he is called "daiku-kata", and he jumps from side to side on the roof of the danjiri as the danjiri is moving.

One thing you will notice is that only men are atop the danjiri and some play the taiko drum, wooden flute and gong. Usually the higher ranking men of the neighborhood are standing on the front of the danjiri. While at the back of the danjiri, more men are there cheering on the runners/pullers.

I think the men on the sides of the danjiri are there to even the weight distribution, so that the danjiri will not topple over on a turn.

Like with most Japanese festivals, women are forbidden to participate and this one is no different, they are not allowed to stand on or touch the danjiri.

Though many young children (including girls) are allowed to pull the danjiri.

One story of how this festival started was an elite asked the lower class people to do something entertaining for him. This danjiri pulling is what they came up with.

Nowadays, I think the festival is held in hopes of a good harvest for the year.

The whole danjiri including the wheels and "brakes" are made of wood. (I think the only part that is metal is the axle.)

I say "brakes" because there is a huge wooden rod that is shoved at the wheel to make the danjiri stop, kinda like a huge go-cart.

There are no gears to make the wheels turn left or right, the whole thing has to be pulled with a great force and literally dragged on a turn.

This makes pulling the danjiri very dangerous, because the only control is handled by the runners in combination with the "brakes".

I got first hand while taking photos, of how the danjiri can go out of control, and had one of the runners fly into me...luckily neither of us got hurt. (top mosaic:bottom left photo)

Many of the electric poles and corners are padded, and any open rain ducts on the side of the roads are filled with sandbags, so that the danjiri nor the runners, will fall in and get stuck or hurt.

Since there was going to be an exhibition of the various neighborhood danjiri at 1-ish, we bought some food and went to hold a place to view the exhibition.

Most of the sidewalk area had been saved by the locals, and at the last minute the place we had chosen was deemed unsafe, so we wiggled our way into the locals area.

Apparently, the locals weren't supposed to be saving seats in the first place, but if one does it then everyone follows suit...sigh.

Actually most of the locals took the shady side of the street and we actually "baked" on the opposite side of the street. Luckily I had brought my sun umbrella.

Then at about 1-ish, we watched as 11 neighborhoods ran and flew through corners with their danjiri. (Apparently the festival in September had 30-something danjiri.)

It was quite exciting to watch. Some had lots of runners and we loved how each neighborhood had their own happi (coats). Many of the girls had intricately braided hair too.

Since the various danjiri were going round and round the block, we decided to leave after about an hour and walked about a mile to check out the Kishiwada castle.

This area is where the September festival is held and the shopping arcade is one of the areas where the danjiri pass.

Most stores in the arcade have balconies so that they can watch the danjiri pass by.

We spoke to one of the shop keepers in the arcade and she said that with the amount of people from outside the city who come to watch danjiri in September, you'll almost never get a seat nor be able to see it up close.

Hearing this, we were glad to be able to see part of the festival without the massive crowds.

It was a long day, we didn't get to experience any of the local foods, but the weather was beautiful, we got a little lot darker, and we got to experience a festival that has been going on for over 300 years.

If you'd like to see a video of a couple of danjiri on their practice runs, click here and or here and here. (NOTE: the last video was a little sketchy, I rotated it using a feature on YouTube so the beginning is sideways but the rest is okay, it shows how narrow a place this danjiri goes!)

Hope you enjoyed this as much as we did.

delicius

Saturday, the weather was clear and sunny.

We headed out to Onohara, which is on the other side of our city from where we live.

I had heard that new subdivisions had been recently built, and wanted to see what the area looked like since we had visited this area, mostly pre-blog, though I did find a post here, and there wasn't much too see back then.

The new subdivisions are beautiful, with wide sidewalks, so wide you could actually fit a car or two side by side!

Not only that but they have many many more eateries than when we visited way back when.

One place I was interested in checking out was Delicius, we visited them pre-blog and at the time, their cafe space was situated in the parking lot.

Now, they have moved across the street from that shop, in their own building, with 5 tables inside and 2 outside.

I tried the cassis cake and loved the sweet hazelnut chocolate filling which balanced out the tart cassis mousse.

Satoshi tried their pumpkin cake which was a very airy but flavorful cake.

I loved the plating too, with all sorts of fruits...both of our cakes with coffees...1700 yen total (about US$17).

I'm glad we checked out this area and it was a great start to our 3-day weekend.

Delicius
6-14-22 Onohara-nishi
Minoo, Osaka
Phone: 072.729-1222
Closed every Tuesday & the 1st and 3rd Monday of the month

new recipes

I recently came across a recipe for ginger syrup in the September issue of "Elle a Table".

The first recipe showed how to make the syrup and then in the same section, there were recipes which used the syrup.

Take even parts of ginger and honey.

Cut off any dried out areas of the ginger and throw this part away.

Wash your ginger (with the skin on) and slice thin.

In an air tight glass container (a bottle is good), add the sliced ginger then add the honey, let sit for 20 to 30 minutes, stir once in awhile.

After the 20 to 30 minutes, put into the refridge to keep.

The magazine article says that it will keep for 5 days, but I think it may last a little longer (but not for too much longer).

You would think that this would be used for something "sweet", and there were some recipes that were for sweet dishes, but the one that caught my eye was a savory one.

Beef & Ginger "Shigure-ni" from "Elle a Table September 2011"
Serves 4

300 grams beef komagire (thinly cut scraps), bite sized
1 pack eringi mushroom, cut length-wise into fourths

Sauce:
3 tablespoons sake (rice wine)
3 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
3 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons ginger syrup
1/4 cup ginger slices from the syrup, cut into bite sized pieces if too large

Put the ingredients for the sauce in a pan at medium heat.
When it starts to simmer, add the beef and eringi.
Cook until the liquid evaporates, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Enjoy with rice or put into a bento.

NOTES: The piece of ginger I used was 80 grams, so I used 80 cc of honey.

I think if the ginger you can get in your area is matured (fibrous & hard, darker yellow in color), you should cut the ginger thin and finely instead of just thin slices.

Komagire is literally translated as scraps, just make sure to get thinly sliced beef (as thin as you can find).

Shigure-ni literally means "simmered drizzle" but it also means something simmered in soy sauce. And because shoga (ginger) is sometimes added, it is sometimes called Shoga-ni.

This took a little longer than 4 to 5 minutes for the liquid to evaporate, more like 10 minutes.

This dish was delicious, be prepared with lots of rice! Also, because it had ginger in it, it was a nice way to warm up on a cool night.

Even though I found this recipe in Autumn, I'm keeping this one for Winter too!

kimbap

Kimbap is Korean-style sushi. I've been seeing it more and more around here.

The other night I picked this one up from Saraban which has a counter in the Daimaru Umeda department store...630 yen (about US$6.30 for about 1 roll).

A little pricey, some pieces were really thin.

This one was filled with bulgogi and veggies. It went nicely with a salad.

There is one at a convenience store I want to try too, hopefully I can get to it before they change their menu.

Have you tried kimbap before? What is your favorite fillings for it?

clouds

Last weekend, the clouds looked like this.

Autumn is definitely here.

We have a 3-day weekend here. No plans, hopefully we'll be able to get out and about.

I hope you all have a nice weekend.

share with a friend

Recently I noticed a new coffee at the convenience store...to celebrate 15 years of Starbucks in Japan...a double latte.

This one was sweetened, a little too sweet for my liking.

But the thing that was good was that there was a sticker on the cap. And with a purchase of a drink (any size), you could redeem this for a free small drink (of the same type of drink) for a friend.

So, one day, Satoshi and I went to Starbucks and I bought a small iced caramel macchiato for myself and got him a small hot caramel macchiato...

It was a nice way to share a coffee with a friend, Happy Anniversary Starbucks!