on a walk

Friday, I took a walk...it was a route I hadn't been on before.

Part of it went up a steep stairway....when you get to the top, you see the huge freeway hovering over you.

Then you need to walk under the freeway...it seemed even bigger.

Somehow, I think the McDonald's in Japan are really stylish, here's one with a drive-thru.

And this supermarket..."now fresh" kinda scary, what kind of foods were they selling before?!

"no pee-ing"...recently a lot of places use the symbol for a temple (the red torii (gate)), they figure if people see it, they won't pee there, or dump rubbish...hopefully it works.

Near the end of my walk, there was an underpass, the walls were covered with all sorts of mosaic pictures.

Like this one, of kasanemochi, a symbol for the New Year.

tako (which means kite) another symbol for the New Year.

And an oni (devil), a symbol for Setsubun (First day of Spring).

What have you been seeing on your walks?

saying goodbye

I first "met" Nate, when he emailed me to find out how to set up his blog in 2006.

We conversed through emails and finally met up in person at Poke Stop.

I recently got an email from Dennis, another blog friend, saying he had emailed Nate, but hadn't received a reply.

Maybe he was busy at work? Taking a break from blogging?

Then, I checked his FB (Facebook) wall...he had passed away.

I was shocked, I just saw him over the summer, he didn't seem sick.

I am thankful for his friendship, and am gonna miss his kindness and generosity.

He's influenced some of the food I've made on this blog...here, here, here and here and here.

We've also had some foodie adventures..here, here, here, here, here and here.

Take care Nate, you will be missed!

chocolate chai snickerdoodles

Since moving to Japan, nothing says the holidays to me like a nice warm cup of chai.

All the different spices warming you up...mmm!

I've had this recipe bookmarked probably since I started this blog, and finally got around to trying it.

Of course, I cut the recipe to a fourth, but I'm going to post the full recipe for those with "real" sized ovens.

Chocolate chai snickerdoodles from Familystylefood.com : makes 42 cookies

2.25 cups sugar
1 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon each allspice, white pepper
1 cup softened butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2.25 cup flour
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Stir sugar & spices
Remove 1/2 for dredging.
Add cocoa to the other half and mix well.
Beat butter until fluffy
Add spiced cocoa mixture and cream
Add eggs and vanilla
Add flour and baking powder at low speed until combined
Form 1 tablespoon sized balls
Roll them in the reserved sugar and arrange 2-inches apart on parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake at 350F (180C) for 12-15 minutes
Cool in pan a few minutes before transferring to rack

NOTES: The dough was really sticky and kind of hard to work with. I ended up with 9 cookies because my tablespoon sized balls were not even.

Also, I think I would reserve less of the sugar mixture to roll in, adding it to the dough instead because I ended up throwing some out at the end.

These are good though, spicy, chocolatey and I like saying "snickerdoodle".

Happy Holidays!

buta no kakuni

The picture in the recipe book was luscious...the pork had a nice sear to it and the sauce was nicely caramelized.

I tried this the other night but didn't follow the directions properly, so these came out a bit too oily.

Buta no kakuni (simmered pork cubes) : serves 2 : adapted from "Orange Page's Aki ni oishii kondate"

300 grams pork belly, sliced to 1.5 centimeter pieces
1/2 clove of garlic
2 thin slices of ginger
1 chili pepper (whole)
1.5 cups water + 2 cups
1.5 tablespoons sake (rice wine)
1.5 tablespoons sugar
1.5 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)

In a non-stick pan, brown pork pieces
Add 2 cups of water, bring to a boil then drain (this is to lessen the fat)
In a pot, add the pork, garlic, ginger, chili, sake, sugar, shoyu and 1.5 cups water.
Bring to a boil then turn down heat to a simmer.
Simmer for 40-60 minutes or until liquid reduces to half.

NOTES: I didn't add the 2 cups of water, which is why mine turned out oily.
I would definitely make this one again, making sure to add the water.

It's Friday, we're supposed to have -2C (28F) weather this weekend....hope you have a great weekend!

shrooms!

I was kinda thrilled to find these mushrooms at the market the other day.

They are cultivated in Japan and I am eagerly waiting to see portabellos in the near future.

With these and some eringi, I made a mushroom sauce, sauteeing the shrooms in some olive oil then drizzling some tonkatsu sauce. At the end I added a nub of butter.

I served this over a hamburger patty and a side of sweet potato mash for dinner the other night.

With the leftover hamburger patties and mushroom sauce, I made "loco moco" for breakfast the other day.

No gravy but this version was pretty delicious.

'tis the season

Christmas is coming, what a great way to celebrate with all sorts of sweet treats from around the globe.

First off though is not a sweet treat... A french classmate went to Belgium recently and brought back this cute sachet filled with lavender, perfect for Christmas (merci!)

Mini pandoro from MUJI. I had read about pandoro on Rowena's blog, but had not tried it myself.

Have you seen how big Pandoro or Panettone are?! Lucky for me, MUJI had these mini-sized (like the size of a big muffin), perfect for a taste.

This Italian eggy bread/cake reminds me of what we have in Japan called castella.

And if you try pandoro, then you have to try the Italian panettone too.

Another mini-size made by MUJI.

This one was more bread-like filled with raisins and citrus peels.

I preferred the pandoro while Satoshi preferred the panettone.

A small box of La Mere Poulard's Les cookies du Mont Saint Michel (France).

These cookies are packed with chocolate chips...yum!

Weiss Contrella Classic Lebkuchen (Germany)...I had envisioned something more like gingerbread, maybe a little more crisp, but these were soft, a little spicy, very sweet and dipped in chocolate.

With a cup of tea though, they were perfect.

Rounding out our Christmas treats, shortbread from Scotland.

Walker's buttery shortbread are delicious.

What are you enjoying these days?

made in japan

Gofun (goh-foon) nail is something I came across while shopping in LOFT...1200 yen a bottle.

I had no idea that there were nail polishes made in Japan, Kyoto to be exact. The best part of this is that the product is natural, made of shells ground to a powder.

Apparently this form of paint has been used in Japanese artwork for hundreds of years.

This nail polish doesn't have that "stinkiness", like most all others do.

Because the product is natural, it doesn't last long on your nails, especially if you wash dishes by hand.

Good part is that you can use this product until the very last drop, they boast that it doesn't harden or separate in the bottle (we'll see).

It goes on very matte and dries quite quickly. I used a top coat that wasn't "natural", so that was the only part that smelled.

They had so many colors it was hard to choose from...the one on the left is Momohanairo (peach flower) and the one on the right is sango (coral).

Hopefully I can try more colors.