Do you have this citrus in your country? We call it as kinkan. I eat only its skin with paring off with my front teeth since the fruit has a lot of seeds and too sour to eat, but it has so nice flavor in its skin.
My mother loves it so much and she used to have many many while I was living with my parents. I didn’t care it so much at that time, but now, I’m addicted! I think my some gene suddenly woke up!
Archive for the ‘food’ Category
Kinkan/きんかん
Posted in food, tagged kinkan on February 1, 2010 | 16 Comments »
Gyoza/ぎょうざ
Posted in food, tagged gyoza on December 18, 2009 | 13 Comments »
Kids like making gyoza with me. They were competing how fast they could. We can eat over 50 gyoza at one supper. Homemade gyoza is much healthier than ones in at restaurant because they have much vegetables and less fat! The ingredients of my gyoza are minced pork, chopped onion, cabbage, shiitake(mushroom), oba(shiso leaves), and any vegetable from my fridge!
Oden/おでん
Posted in food, life, tagged hanpen, mochikinchaku, oden on December 16, 2009 | 8 Comments »
Oden is a typical dish in winter time in Japan. It’s easy to make and delicious! To make it better, you should simmer a variety of ingredients together and simmer them for a long time.( I kept simmering them for 4 hours this time.) Extracts from each ingredients seep into broth and that tasty broth seep back into them again.
Mochi-kinchaku my no.1 favorite!
Egg;no.2
Hampen/はんぺん;no.3 a kind of fish cake
It's served in an electric hot pan/ホットプレート to keep them hot
Crazy display
Posted in food, life, tagged kagamimochi, mochi, oshougatsu on December 7, 2009 | 16 Comments »
I saw this display at a nearby hardware store. They stack the bunch of packages up to almost the ceiling.
Which one would you want to pull out? I kept my distance from them. How could you make up if that tower of packages had collapsed by your choice?
It’s a package of kagami-mochi for the new years days.
My kitchen tools
Posted in food, life, tagged dashimaki, makisu, syamoji, takoyaki, tamagoyaki on November 12, 2009 | 25 Comments »
Here is some of the tools from my kitchen. Are they unfamiliar with you?
1) A special pan for takoyaki . This is not popular all over the Japan, but only at Kanasai area, they have these pans commonly in the kitchen.
2) A square pan for tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette. See the You-tube video I attached below, and you can see how to make tamagoyaki.
3)It is called surikogi(the stick) and suribachi(the bowl). They are used to grain sesame seeds until they become sticky and oily. They add some ingredients into the sesame paste and dress boiled vegetable.
4)Makisu is used for making Makizushi/sushi roll.
5)A measuring cup
6)A set of measuring spoons
Looking the cooking books from foreign countries, I often find ‘tablespoon’ or ‘tea-cup’ for measuring. I wonder it’s inaccurate since you have various sizes of tablespoon or tea cup! In Japanese books, you can see, for example ‘one cup’, that means one cup of 200 ml measuring cup. Also, ‘one big spoon’ means you’re supposed to use that biggest spoon of the set you can see in the pic. Having these two tools are quite natural for the Japanese. Of course, when I can’t find those in someone’s kitchen, I can use any other cup or spoon and measure by sight.
7)O-shamoji/ a spatula for steamed rice. It has hubbly surface to prevent it from being messy with rice.
8)A spoon for eating boiled kani/crab. I don’t think it’s common tools but my husband has had it before we got married. Crab is comparably expensive meal in Japan, so we have used the spoon once or twice up to now…
His name is Gyoro-chan. He is the machine to shave a block of ice and make frappe in summer. His eyes moves right and left while he’s shaving ice. I’ve kept him since I was a child.
I have these high-tech tools but I don’t use them regularly. Because I hate to read their manual and moreover there is no vacant electric outlet in my kitchen. You could finish whipping cream with your hand and a whisk while you’re looking into the manual to find how to whip the cream! How short-tempered I am…
Do you have any unique kitchen tools for some specific meals?
ハローウィーン Halloween in Japan
Posted in food, life, tagged gummy hand, halloween, Japanese halloween on October 31, 2009 | 14 Comments »
Tsukareru-chan sent me a BIG package for Halloween present! Thank you Tsukareru!
The most surprising thing of them was this!!
My family could not even cut it, so asked for help to neighbors!!
They were all screaming out , gazing at, and laughing!! The only person who could eat it casually was the smallest girl in that picture! She was CHEWING the cut pinky!! EWWW!
I shared a few kind of candies that Tsukareru sent me with them. It’s funny! It’s our halloween day. How about yours?
Taiyaki (たいやき)
Posted in food, tagged oyoge taiyaki kun, taiyaki on October 16, 2009 | 7 Comments »
This is a taiyaki from my yesterday snack. Every time I have a taiyaki, it brings me back memories of the children song “Oyoge taiyaki-kun“. The song had been a huge hit when I was 7 or 8. I used to sing the song and draw the character with my peers. We would vie against each other to create the best illustration.
I looked for the movie of the song and I found both the Japanese one and the English one!
I didn’t know it has the English version. Have you ever heared it before?
filled with anko(sweetened red beans)
The cooking recipe for taiyaki is here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD7JjeupVt0
My bento?
Posted in food, life, Uncategorized, tagged bento on October 2, 2009 | 3 Comments »
For my husband (black) and Momo(yellow)
Petit-tomato ring for Momo!
Don’t ask me why my husband’s lunch box has the phrase “Play the Music” on its top. The Japanese never mind the meaning.
Mammography マンモグラフィー
Posted in food, life, tagged マンモグラフィ, cancer screening, mammography on September 26, 2009 | 10 Comments »
Sanma/さんま in Autumn is very fatty and so yummy! The other meals in the photo are potato salad, bitter gourd with pork and simmered rice.
I took the screening of breast cancer yesterday for the first time in my life! It’s not because I felt a lump but just I got a free coupon from the government. Yes, the Japanese government give all women over 30 a free coupon for breast or uterus cancer exam in every 5 years. (Women over 40 can get both of these two exams.)
I was very nerves since I’d heard that the mammography is terribly painful. However, it was OK!! It’s certainly painful but not so much, for me maybe. But I could NOT see how my breast was pressed! I kept looking at the ceiling.
Katsuo,Hirame and Ikura
Posted in food, tagged hirame, ikura, katsuo, raw fish, sashimi on September 14, 2009 | 8 Comments »
My father in law had been working in the fish market in Osaka, that is the central market in the west side of Japan, and as famous as Tsukiji in Tokyo. Now, he’s retired but he goes their every morning to take a part-time job for several hours a day. The true reason of him to go there is to get fresh and distinctively tasty fishes that you can’t get in the supermarket. Those who involved in the Fish Market have very good fish every day, even the most popular kind of the fish like sanma or saba is very fatty and so tasty. I had found the gut of sanma is so good after I got married with my husband. The gut! Have you ever had the fish’s gut? To have good fish’s gut, the fish must be enough fresh and high quality.
Once or twice a month, we go to my parent’s home and every time we go there, my father in law is waiting for us preparing the nice meal.
Katsuo/bonito
Marined Hirame/flounder
Ikura rice/salmon roe
