What I Make - 私が作る食事

I tend to cook a lot of my own food nowadays. While I'm working on posts about food I buy as well - like various sweets and conbini bentou - I thought I should also post about my homemade meals.

私は、最近よく自分のために料理してきた。買ったもの、例えば、お菓子とかコンビ二の弁当とか、のことのポストも書いているけれど、手作りの食事のポストでもしようかと思っているんだね。

So, without further delay, I present a few of my (rather thrown-together) meals I've had recently.

では、ただ今より、最近の（ちょっと食材を投げいられた）食べた食事を紹介いたしますね。

A veggie stew, pan-fried tofu, and a cheese sauce.

野菜のシチュー、焼いた豆腐とチーズソース

Chilli with cabbage mixed in, and sato potatoes with chili powder and curry powder.

キャベツと混ぜたチリー、チリパウダーもカレーパウダーもかけた里芋

Pan-fried tofu again, with bibb lettuce, spicy mayonnaise, and blended oatmeal flavored with butter and parmesan cheese.

またの焼いた木綿豆腐とビッブレタス、スパイシーマヨ、バターとパルメザンで味付けたミクサーでとろろしたオートミール。

Curried vegetables with mayo, yet more pan-fried tofu, and chili sauce with turmeric for color.

マヨをかけたカレー味の野菜、またまたの焼いた豆腐、見た目のターメリックとチリソース。

Alfredo soba noodles, eggplant and mushrooms pan-fried with coconut oil, and chili sauce.

アルフレード味風そば、ココナツオイルで炒めた茄子ときのこ、チリソース

Stir-fried soumen noodles, eggplant, tofu and mushrooms with garlic, and - tada!- more chili sauce.

ガーリックで味付けてココナツオイルで炒めたそうめんと茄子と豆腐ときのこ、そして　－ジャジャーン！－またまたのチリソース。

Okay, so, surely that's sufficient food porn for now, no? Back to our regular programming. I still haven't posted about my recent trip to the newly constructed Sushi Ro in the next town over! I'll get right on it.

じゃ、取り敢えずそれで食べ物の写真は十分でしょう？これから、普通に戻ろうね。先々週の次の町の新しくできたすしローに行ったことのポストは、まだ書いてないんだね。紛れもなく、すぐに書くことにします（＾＿＾）

De wa, mata kondo.

では、また今度。

お知らせです。

日本人の読者様が私が書いている英語を読むのが大変かとは、最近私の注意を引かせてもらいました。

ですので、これからはポストが英語も、日本語も、できるだけ両方使おうとしたいと思っておりますね。

けれど、そのため、もしかして今よりポストが出すのが遅くなってしまうかもしれませんので、皆さん、よろしくお願いいたします。

もう一点ですが、日本人の読者さまには、私の日本語を直していただいたら全然構いません。コッメントで、ご自由にどうぞ。

以上です。

（今日のポストで、敬語ばかり使おうとしたが、これからはもっとカジュアルな書き方で行くよ、笑。敬語じゃ、使いにくすぎるからね、外国人の私には。）



では、また。

An Unhealthy Love

...or maybe it's a healthy love, instead? I'm referring to my feelings towards one of my favorite foods, oats. It can't be unhealthy to eat several servings of something so good for you a day, can it? Nawwww.....

Anyway, I've been wandering the internet, as is my wont, lately. I came across a site by a wonderful young woman named Katie, Chocolate Covered Katie . Turns out she loves oatmeal as much (probably more!) than I do. But more important, she's far more creative with it than I am. While I've played with flavoring for traditionally prepared oatmeal before, I'd never tried making boatmeal (that's her nonce word for "baked oatmeal") before!

One thing I should note about living in Japan: the standard Japanese kitchen does NOT have an oven. This is due to the fact that standard Japanese cooking does not require an oven. Baked goods are generally considered "youshoku" (western cuisine).

However, I do have a sort of toaster/convection oven (and a microwave I heartily abuse). Studying Katie's recipe for oatmeal cakes, I decided that it was worth trying in my weeny lil' non-oven.

Came out quite well, methinks (^.^)

The first one I made. I put chocolate chips in this one and baked it in a (very tiny) cake pan, so it was round. Tasty.

This one I made with the addition of cocoa powder instead of chocolate chips, and baked in a mini-loaf pan. It was like a super chewy gingerbread. It would have tasted more like a brownie if I'd used a.) more cocoa, and b.) less cinnamon. But hey, I like gingerbread. So nyeah. 

So there ya go.  A dash of Japanese cooking culture, and a liberal dose of my own culinary experimentation. I plan to repeat this recipe maaaany many times. It needs to be perfected, doncha know.

Update: So... yeah. I made it a couple more times. Here's the results, heh.

A snickerdoodle one. Flavored with cinnamon sugar and butter.

And a savory version. The top layer is tomato-flavored, and the bottom layer has cheese in it. It tasted like a super dense, delicious breakfast biscuit or muffin. Yummeh.

Osaka, Day 3

 The long awaited (by like.. no one?) Osaka, Day three!

This recap of the third day won’t be too terribly long. Having half a day to wander around doesn’t lend itself to lots of activities.

It doesn’t help that we literally wandered around for hours attempting to find an area around Osaka station that we’d run into accidentally the day before. For some reason, we just could not find it again. But, I digress. We should begin at the beginning, no?

On day two, we had come across the Excelsior Café in Osaka station. Upon seeing it, I remembered that Gatcha Land, where I’d gone with Yuri, was very close by.

So, we decided that we wanted to go back and raid the wee lil’ vending machines for cute goodies.  But, somehow, we couldn’t quite manage to locate it when we searched after coming back from Kobe. We looked for a while, but it got late and we felt more like getting to bed than continuing the search. We decided to make it our activity for the next day. 

Turned out that finding the place in the light of day wasn’t much more successful than finding it at night. We must have stopped three different station employees/policemen/etc. and asked for help. Unfortunately, we seemed to have located the three people in Japan who weren’t interested in being helpful, as they quickly brushed us off with a mere “dunno” and continued on their way.

Eveeeeentually, though, we did locate it. There, I proceeded to completely empty my change purse getting the following super-ultra-adorable dingly-donglies for my keychain and backpack.

Two kitty-seated-on-edamame charms.

A pink floofy thing!

A little semi-gothic thing that just appealed to me.

A wee-little bear.

A fox's tail one. (I had my fingers crossed I'd get that one!)

A little devil kitty.

Yes, devil. See his wings? Adorable.

All that searching worked up an appetite, so we stopped by a nearby café called the Vie de France Café for some pastry love. See, look, I took a peekchur.

We got our carbs on, while I messed with my new pretties. The fuzzy pink one? It started as a ball of pink twine and what looked like ears and eyes stuck on a stencil. I actually had to wind the pink stuff on myself. It was kinda cool, actually.

Anyway, our food!

The run-down:

A chicken-cheese-tomato tortilla thing (Meri's)

A cheese and tomato half sandwich (Meri's)

A cheese and honey bun (Meri's)

Another cheese and honey bun (mine)

and a matcha/azuki bean sweet bread (mine)

They were delicious. The cheese and honey combo was particularly good. I love mixing sweet and salty.

I also took a picture of the trash can, because the Japanese mistake of translating “gomi” (trash/garbage) as “dust” is just amusing.

Oh, and in one department store, we found ourselves waiting for an (eternally slow) elevator. Across from us was a large, totally mirrored wall. I was wearing mah new bewts, so I wanted to take pictures. Plus the wall was just kind of cool.  Hora (see?)

I actually did not notice that I was positioned under the heart in the mirror. I mean, uh, (coughcough), that was on purpose. Yeah.

After that, we split up so Meri could catch her shinkansen (bullet train) ride back to Kanazawa, and I lingered over some ice tea in a coffee shop until my bus came to ferry me back to Tokushima. It was all in all an awesome weekend and a fun time. Seriously looking forward to more girl time in the future ^_^

Jaa, mata ne.

It's a rare quiet moment....

...here at my main school on a Friday afternoon.

I had two classes and English club activities today. One moment in one of my classes made me just about want to jump up and down with glee.

Here's the set-up: my students were doing an interview activity. They were going around the room, collecting answers about holiday activities from other students. One girl was chatting with a couple other kids, and absent-mindedly managed rip her paper in her hands. It was a very clean tear, and the whole thing was more amusing than anything else, but that's not what made me happy.

One of the students she was talking to, a tall boy, had obviously been paying attention to me in the beginning of class. I'd remarked in a sarcastic way, "good job", when another kid had pulled a horrendously crumpled worksheet out of his desk. I didn't think anyone'd noticed.

But when this girl tore her paper, this tall boy turned to her, gave her a thumbs up, and said, "good job!" in the most wonderfully dry tone.

I was so proud.

Often American-style (and I assume British as well) sarcasm sort of goes over Japanese people's heads. It's just not ingrained in the linguistic culture here the way it is state-side. So when a student really applies something like that, especially if I didn't pointedly teach it first, I am absolutely thrilled. It makes me feel like they're not only learning about English, but they're learning about the whole vast array of cultural differences behind it.

Anyway, now I'm chilling for a while before it's time to head out. I can't wait for the weekend. I have plans to go fooding with my friend Miranda. (If you didn't immediately guess we're going for sushi, you haven't been paying attention) I will bring my camera.

Mata kondo ne.

Just a quick interlude...

I made something so awesome today that I couldn't resist sharing. Well, sharing pictures, anyway. It was too delicious to not eat it all myself.

I give you: the Peanut Butter Cup Oatmeal Parfait.

Enjoy.

(If anyone wants details on the contents of this heaven-in-a-glass, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email ^_^)

Osaka, Day 2

Whoa, how did two weeks pass without me realizing I hadn’t continued the epic tale of my Osaka adventures? Well, at any rate, time to remedy that!

For your viewing pleasure, I give you Day 2 of my trip in Osaka.

So, we lingered in the hotel room, luxuriating in early morning slumber.  After eventually rousing ourselves, we ventured out into the world. I was determined to hit the same sushi joint that I had gone to with Yuri, since Meri is also a sushi aficionado. Oh, and the parfait shop as well. First, however, we decided to stop and get (what else?) some sweet goodies. Gotta pregame the day, yanno.

 My selection was a sakura-flavored steamed bread. It had azuki beans, was seated on a sakura leaf, and had a smidgen of ume on top. I was surprised how the sweet/salty/sour ume brought it all together. It was really good.

Meri got a sweet potato pastry. It was full of starchy goodness.

After our light breakfast, we jumped on a train towards Kobe. Due to my abysmal navigating skills, we accidentally went one stop too far, but it resulted in a fortuitous photo opportunity.

Voila, a trendy cow! Yeah, I just had to take a picture.

Anyway, after backtracking a bit, we decided to partake of parfait deliciousness before going for sushi. And this time, I took pictures of the restaurant itself! It’s one of the cutest eateries I’ve had the pleasure of visiting, I swear.

But of course, it’s the food that’s the star.

Meri's roll cake parfait, chocolate flavor. They did in fact bring her a little side dish to place the roll cake on. It'd be really hard to eat otherwise.

My dish had, I think, vanilla and chocolate regular ice cream, vanilla soft cream (Japanese soft serve), and some frozen yogurt as well. The garnishes were three marshmellows, little bites of sweet potato, chestnut puree, cornflakes (duh), and the bottom had a thin layer of honey. I actually couldn't see the honey, but boy could I taste it! It was a great little surprise.

And the carnage.

After our ‘scream, we wandered a bit. When I visited the bathroom in one store I was treated to this thoroughly amusing sign, and its Engrish.

I don’t know why it was so amusing. Maybe the “Caution, drop!” had something to do with it. Also apparently it's the bathroom of no return. You may never leave... or at least you can't if you have an infant. Glad I'm kid-less.

Before long, we were heading towards sushi, though.  Meri was observant and noticed this sign in the strip mall.

Do you see it? There’s a Curves there. Why is that so funny? I don’t know, but it is. Laugh with me.

But enough scenery, sushi time!

 Mixed tempura. I think this selection had shrimp, kabocha, okra, and maybe squid.

 Negi maguro / negi toro. Otherwise known as "scallion tuna", or tuna belly mixed with scallions and chopped very finely. It's yuuuuuuuummy.

 This is shrimp with cheese and basil sauce. I love the variety of sushi at this particular chain.

 Cucumber and ume rolls. A simple, but oh-so-tasty combination.

Tarako (spicy cod roe) and mayonnaise. Japanese mayo is a bit sweeter than most American brands. Kewpie mayo is the most common brand name here.

This is seared bonito with what I think was a kind of tobiko puree on top. At any rate, it was also delectable.

Nasu, or Japanese eggplant. Looks perhaps bland, but biting into it, the masterful panfrying was evident. It had a lot of umami from the oil and flavorings. This was further boosted by the miso sauce topping it. Miso-seasoning is often called "dengaku," and with eggplant it's called "nasu dengaku." It's a wonderful preparation for this veggie.

Pork belleh. You really only need one piece when it comes to this kind of luxuriousness. Full of fat and flavor.

This was a lovely light dessert. Frozen mango chunks with cream. At first it was a little too frozen, but after letting it sit for a few minutes, I could bite into it without getting brainfreeze, and it was delightful.

We needed a bit of time after all that yumminess to digest, so we decided to go bowling. ‘Cuz when you think of Japan, you think of bowling, of course.

This Pulitzer-quality shot I took...

And a shot of me Meri took. Actually she managed to get a shot of me getting a strike (my only one!!), fortuitously. 

My weapon of choice.

 

See that thing down at the bottom?? That's the bandaid I had on my thumb after shredding my thumbnail.  It went flying into the great waxed yonder after a particularly vigorous chuck of the ball. No pain, no gain.

I don’t do much bowling, but I had a really good time. I’d totally do it again.

We also spent some time in an arcade, where I took a picture of this amusing video game machine...

I <3 House of the Dead. Typing of the Dead will always hold a special place in my heart.

We also got ourselves some purikura, or artsy photos from highly swanky, specialized photo booths. They're awesome at making you look good no matter what. Here, see?

The little eye sparklies were my addition. You can glitz these things up in myriad ways at the little "post-production" monitor thingy.

Because we were still in a smorgasbord-y mood, we hit a (rare) buffet for dinner. I, of course, ate way too much. But it was a good kind of stuffed, haha.

I got some pizza (with mentaiko and nori), unohana, spaghetti, a spring roll, a nikuman (meat bun), and some chilled tofu.

Every meal must come with dessert. My poison this time, from the top going clockwise, was red bean soup, soft cream with some chocolate and walnut cake topped with cereal, a donut, a sesame ball, another bit of cake topped with cream, and sweet black soybeans topped with kinako.

Before returning to our hotel for the day, we indulged our girliness and went shopping. And I think Meri performed some kind of devilry on me, because I actually elected to buy non-purely-functional shoes, and a hat. Here, have a look.

Phew, that was a loooong day. But it was good times, and fashionably lucrative to boot (har!). I thoroughly enjoyed the fooding, bowling and shopping. Definitely need to practice the bowling part, though.

Next up, day three!

Mata kondo.