お寿司(Osushi)

In Japanese supermarket, they usually have packed Sushi like this.



This was 680 yen. Enough for woman, but for man, need bigger one.
The above price includes 醤油(syouyu:soy sauce) and 箸(hashi:chopsticks).

Do you see the green plastic thing?
That is called バラン(baran), which is a partition.
Originally it was orchid leave　葉蘭(haran:leave of orchid), the pronunciation is "Haran", but now we use plastic which pronunciation changed to "Baran".
It is said people in the past used Haran not only parting Sushi, but also for Haran's artistic apparance.


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Philippine food

I'm back from Filippines!!
I missed Japanese food so much that right after I came back, I ate 刺身(sashimi)!!

It had many Filippine foods which were all so delicious.
One of the biggest differences between Japanese food is the percentage of oil that they use.
Filippine food uses so much oil, and Filipinos love it.
Basically, Japanese food does not use much oil.
So, like me who used to eat Japanese food, it was very heavy.

Also, I found out that Filippine food uses a lot of meat and fish.
The percentage of vegetable and fruit ingredients are very low.

There are many more things that I found out, but I guess I'll write them later.

Off to Philippines!

I'm leaving for Philippines tomorrow.
This trip is to see if there is a chance to start my own business there!

However, I will simply enjoy my vacation!


Cherry blossom season is about to end.
Little sad about it...

イカ大根

It's been cold, so I made something warming.
This is a Japanese food that uses squid and Japanese radish.
It's a nostalgic taste for Japanese people.

[Recipe]

Ingredients for 2 people:

1 squid
1/2 of Japanese radish
10cm of dried seaweed
400cc of water
200cc of soy sauce
2 big spoons of Japanese sake

1. Remove inner parts and gristle of a squid, and cut into proper size. Peel Japanese radish and cut about 2.5cm thickness.

2. Boil water and put squid for 20 seconds and quickly take out from the pot. Put Japanese radish, water, Japanese sake and dried seaweed in another pot, and boil them.

3. Skim the scum and put soy sauce. Turn off the heat and leave the pot for 30 minutes.

4. Put squid and stew for 20 minutes.


You can use pressure cooker instead of a normal pod. It makes Japanese radish and squid much softer.


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Samurai William

I love cooking, and I also love reading books!

It took me about a moth to read this book.
This book is about how British people opened the first trading house in Japan and the British who came to Japan.
His name was William Adams, and he became the advisor of 徳川家光(Iemitsu Tokugawa) who was the third 将軍(Shogun) of Edo Shogunate.

This book was written based on the old history book and research.
I could see how it was like to live in Japan around 16th century.
It's good to know how people lived in the old days.
I think, reading through history books, I can gain some perspective and knowledge on how to live a life.

For more detail description about this book, please see the page below;
http://www.britishempire.co.uk/library/samuraiwilliam.htm


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Caramel Mocha Muffin

I often make muffin because it's easy to make, carry and eat for breakfast!

[Recipe]

Ingredients for 5 muffins:
50g of margarine
100g of flour
60g of millet sugar
3g of baking powder
1 egg (middle size)
40g of milk
5g of instant coffee
50g of caramel chocolate morsels

1.Let egg, margarine and milk warm at room temperature. Shift flour and baking powder. Put milk in a microwave, and mix with instant coffee.

2. Beat margarine with sugar in a bowl until cream. Break and beat an egg. Add egg in the bowl in 3 parts and mix the ingredients.

4. Put ingredients and mix them as the following order; 1/3 of powder, 1/2 of milk, 1/3 of powder, 1/2 of milk, caramel chocolate morsels, 1/3 of powder.

5. Put the dough into muffin cups. Heat the oven at 180℃. Bake them for 25 minutes in the oven.


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Photo exhibition

I visited my friend's photo exhibition yesterday, which gave me so much inspiration!!



This is one of the photoes that my friend took.
It's hard to see clearly in the picture, but there is an amazing capture of the river flow which is impossible to see with our eyes. Only a camera can capture this.




Among the photoes, there were some interesting ones.
This is a festival in Historic Villages in Shirakawa-go.
According to my friend, this festival is limited to the village people.
However, a man who took this photo loves Shirakawa-go and he visits there so often, so he became their friend and was invited to the festival!



This photo has a magical power to calm me down.



After visiting the exhibition, my friend told me that there was a cake shop that sells delicious rolled-cake.
So, I visited there! Why not!

I noticed sweet smell from 50 meters away!

PATISSIER LABO TETSUYA
http://www.arkworld.co.jp/labo-tetsuya/



I bought "TETSUYA ROLL" which you can see in the picture.

It was really tasty!
Well burned surface, very moist, but light and airy texture.
I wonder how this is possible.
And above all, perfectly balanced cream sweetness with the sponge.

This was really an exciting day to me:)


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