Some news from Japan!

Tofu Kaiseki dinner at Ukai in Tokyo

2010-01-31T23:35:00.000+09:00

Tofu-ya "Ukai" is really nice place to dine. It's located next to Tokyo Tower which is world famous landmark in Japan. I believe you'll enjoy Ukai because they have traditional Japanese atmosphere, great hospitality, and inexpensive price range.
As you can see on the photo below, it's a beautiful Japanese garden.

Dinner was just great!!!!!
Their siguniture dish of "Tofu" was so soft and tasty. It was delicious:)

Saijo-ji at Mt. Daiyu in Kanagawa, Japan

2010-01-15T00:02:00.006+09:00

Saijou-temple is not far from my home and I usually visit there in New Year. This temple is quite an old and is going to have 600th anniversary in this year.

Way to the gate of temple are covered by cider tree.
We burn incense at the entrance and get smoke to the body. It'll get away a bad luck.
Here is the first building.
Main building to pray for us.
Tengu (= long-nosed goblin) is guarding this temple. So we can see some of the related goods of Tengu. There are variety of geta (=clogs) on the ground. It's so amazing how big clogs are. One of them, I could sleep on the top of the clogs.

Eye contact!

2010-01-05T00:40:00.005+09:00

It was so cute when 4 years old niece talked with 3 months baby. They communicate each other without speaking!

It was happened at New Year family gathering. Baby nephew were staring niece. He must know who is the close buddy for him:)

Mt. Fuji

2010-01-04T00:27:00.002+09:00

Always nice to see the Mt. Fuji in the clear sky like this. I took this photo on January 2, 2009 from Otome-toge, Hakone.

View of Mt. Fuji changes every seconds by cloud or light. I could stay here all day with my camera:)

New Year's ornament

2010-01-02T21:43:00.002+09:00

Paper craft of "Kagami-mochi".

"Kagami-mochi" (鏡餅）is known of New Year's decolation in Japan. It's offering to the Buddha (or God) to wish our happiness and family prosperity.

"Kagami-mochi" are sets of two round, flat rice cakes, in which a smaller one is placed on top of a larger one. Then add on orange on top.

Japanese "Kagami" means mirror in English
Japanese "Mochi" means rice-cake in English

A Happy New Year!!!!!

2010-01-01T00:36:00.003+09:00

2010 started in Japan. This year's Oriental Zodiac is "Tiger". It's same as Chinese one.

I'm still thinking my New Year resolution now. I'll set it up before New Year's day family gathering.

Happy 2010 for you!

Happy Holiday!

2009-12-22T23:47:00.004+09:00

Christmas is coming soon!!!

I wish my blog readers are going to have a Happy Holidays!!

Laobian dumpling

2009-09-25T22:28:00.008+09:00

Laobian dumpling (老邊餃子館) is famous restaurant in Shenyang. It was established in 1829 by elder Bian (邊福). They do business over 180 years now.

If you go this restaurant, there are two specialty menu. First one is flower tea.
Tea pot is funny looking and their flower tea blend is unique.
Isn't this nine???

And second specialty is laobian steamed dumpling. It was so soft and tasty!
I didn't use soy sauce because inside of meat and vegetable have special flavor.

This dumpling was not listed house specialty, but it was recommended by waiter.
As you see the photo, taste was ggggggreat:)))

Fuling Tomb

2009-09-24T22:02:00.001+09:00

Fuling Tomb (福陵)

This place is mausoleum of Nurhachi who is founding emperor of the Qing Dynasty. This site is locating northeast of Shenyang downtown(20 min by car). All the buildings are beautiful and awesome!!!! I understand why this site become UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This is an entrance.
108 steps to the main building. 108 is a common number for Buddism.
First building has big stone monument inside.
Great view of main building!
It looks like main building.
Then tomb are end of the site. Nurhaci is sleeping hereunder.

Dinner at "xinhongji"

2009-09-20T11:21:00.003+09:00

Dining Xinhongji (新洪記) restaurant was my first food experience in Shenyang, China. We, Internship members arrived at Shenyang airport around 2:00PM and affiliated company's employee picked us up from there to Hotel. Company employee (Chinese) seems nice and they speak fluent Japanese. It was great to have Japanese speaker when we checked in Hotel.

Xinhongji restaurant prepared nice private room for us.Then welcome party had begun.
It was clean and nice restaurant. I was so amazed how tasty all the food were. Especially boiled dumpling and baked dumpling. Dumpling is this area's specialty food.

Our arrival day was same as affiliated company's President Birthday. We all cerebrated together with this pink cake.
I believed I wouldn't be starving to death in China:)

Mukuden Palace in Shenyang, China

2009-09-18T00:18:00.008+09:00

Shenyang Imperial Palace is known as "Mukuden Palace".

In 1625, Nurhachi established capital in here. Nurhachi and his son Huang Taiji (First Emperor of Qing) were lived here.

Entrance of the palace.
Here is the most famous building called "Dazhang hall". This is one of the earliest establishment.
Building architecture is so beautiful.
This building called "Phoenix tower" and it have third levels. It was highest building in the city at that time.

Shenyang is a big city!!!

2009-09-17T00:41:00.005+09:00

I'm back in Japan:)

I'm sorry I didn't update this blog for a while.
Unfortunately, I could not access this blog from China. I assume Government or Provider block access:( Now I'm back to the on-line world, so I'm going to write my experiences in Shenyang city.

It was great experience to be Internship in China. I've learned so many things and met wonderful people. Amazingly, I didn't get sick or any stomach trouble over there. It was such a fun stay in Shenyang, China.

What do you think of this photo???
This is a window view from hotel room.
Shenyang is really city!! As you can guess, I was thrilled to be here:)

I'll be in Shenyang, China!

2009-08-08T12:36:00.002+09:00

During my job hunting, I got short term Internship at Business consulting company in Shenyang, China.

Shenyang used be called Mukuden. It's 5th largest city in China and main industrial place in Northest China. Red circle is Shenyang on the map of China.

I'll be in Shenyang 3 weeks starting from August 11th. It would be such an experience to be there, so I'm thrilled:)

Popular food in Hiroshima

2009-08-07T12:36:00.001+09:00

***Hiroshima Okonomi-yaki***

I always say Okonomi-yaki is Japanese style of pizza to American friends:))

# Okonomi-yaki (お好み焼き in Japanese)

- Okonomi = your choice
- Yaki = pan-fried

Each region have their original taste of Okonomi-yaki in Japan. Hiroshima is one of the best city to have that.

Here is what I had!
You pick up your favorite vegetable, meat or seafood to cook with flower dough.

This collage show you how to cook it.As you see on the collage, it use thin slice of cabbage, bean sprout, green onion, slice pork, flower dough, egg and egg noodle. And it usually grilled huge iron plate.

That was fun to watch cooking and eat hot okonomi-yaki in front of chief. It makes me hungry now...

Thinking of Hiroshima

2009-08-06T16:25:00.000+09:00

Hiroshima Atomic-bomb day

August 6 is the day Hiroshima got Atomic-bomb during World War II. This building remain the devastation of bomb at that time. City of Hiroshima died in one second...

August 9 is the day Nagasaki got second Atomic-bomb. I think August is the time to think of peace for Japanese.

I visited Nagasaki Memorial Park when I was high school. I can't forget about shocking images of atomic bomb devastation. I always think of world peace after that experience.

Early this year, I had a chance to visit Hiroshima, so I stopped by Memorial park.
Hope you can see the alignment of monument, sacred fire and affected building from above image.

It's very quiet park. Million people are sleeping under stone monument. We all pray for the souls of the dead and eliminate atomic-bomb for our peace.

It was happened for some reason. We don't blame the fact anymore, we think of our peaceful future.

Itsukushima-shrine in Hiroshima

2009-07-17T22:00:00.003+09:00

I visited one of famous shrine that located Miyajima in Hiroshima, Japan.
Miyajima is an small island where Gods and People live together. God will come here through this gate in the ocean.

Here is the main building in the Itsukushima Shrine.

Miyajima is know as deer park like Nara park. We can see the deer on the way to Shrine. I think they are cute!!Miyajima is well-known in the world these days. It's worth visiting there if you have chance.

Useful Miyajima English website is here.

Birthday cake!

2009-07-16T20:05:00.002+09:00

July 16 is my Birthday!!!

I got peach roll cake from pastry store called "Natsume" near my home.

This cake melted in my tongue. Sponge cake was so soft and peach was perfectly ripe:)

It was delicious:))

Hydrangea = Ajisai

2009-07-01T20:15:00.002+09:00

Hydrangea is flower of June!

Hydrangea is called "Ajisai" in Japanese. "Ajisai" always bloom Japanese rainy season in June. Variety of Hydrangea look so beautiful under the rain.

Today I visited flower exhibition and found Hydrangea arrangement.

Hydrangea looks much better on the ground:))

In the Garden

2009-06-29T11:15:00.001+09:00

Lovely rose garden inside of Gotemba Premium Outlet Shopping Center in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Do some shopping and have a peaceful rest in here:)

Bamboo bush

2009-05-21T09:48:00.009+09:00

I had a chance to see bamboo bush in late April.
Bamboo is called "Take" in Japanese.

These tall bamboo didn't fit my camera finder:)
It was nice to be surrounding bamboo under the sun shine.

Do you see small brown things on the bottom??

It's a young bamboo ("Takenoko" in Japanese).
Green bamboo is very hard, but young bamboo which is brown one is still soft and eatable.
Especially young bamboo growing under the ground, those are tasty one.

This brown bamboo is too late to eat, but if we go bamboo bush early April, we can find nice one. Find a very young bamboo that bamboo head is still under the ground. If you feel the bamboo head, then you dig bamboo root from the ground and peel brown skin part like artichoke to get bamboo core.

Bamboo core is going to be boiled bamboo, grilled bamboo or cook with rice etc.

Bamboo is another plant to tell of the arrival of spring in:)

Delicious eel in Japan

2009-05-17T23:40:00.004+09:00

I went Eel (Unagi in Japanese) restaurant for lunch. We held uncle's 57th BD party over there.

Unagi doesn't look so pretty in the ocean, but taste is so good when it's cooked. Popular way of cooking is broiled Unagi and dipped in special soy sauce.

This picture is tasty Unagi bowl I had today.

Unagi was so soft and didn't have fishy flavor at all. It was delicious!!

This restaurant was well-known to have rice porridge with Unagi, so we shared that plate.
Rice porridge is here!!!

As you see pot is really hot! it's boiling on the table without fire.

Rice, egg, carrot, burdock, honewort were cooked with Japanese soup stock on the stone pot in the kitchen. It was delivered to the table so quickly.

We enjoyed good company and taste of Unagi bowl & rice porridge:))

Godzilla in Japan

2009-05-07T01:26:00.008+09:00

Who is staring at you???

It's a world famous Godzilla!!!

I met this guy when I had a opportunity to visit Imperial hotel for event and had a lunch at Hibiya Shanter building.

It's locating in front of Hibiya Shanter building near "Hibiya" subway station. Many people take a photo.

Children's Day, May 5th

2009-05-06T01:36:00.006+09:00

Children's day

May 5th is "Children's Day".

This national holiday was established in 1948 to promote the happiness and well-being of Japanese children.

In ancient times, many people suffered from disease during this season due to (the) high temperatures and humidity.

Around the time of the holiday, families with boys often display warrior dolls and miniature armor in their homes.

This is one of the display example.
Samurai worrier used to wear this Kabuto when they have fight in the old time.

Fantastic Wisteria

2009-04-30T08:04:00.008+09:00

Ashikaga flower park (Tochigi, Japan) have a lot of "Wisteria". It was great timing to visit my friend's family who lives near this park today. Satomi, Shun and new born baby Taiyo are doing well here.

I want to share some great view of Wisteria.
Light up brings us fantastic world:))

Do you see this is only one root on the bottom??

Shiny part is wisteria flower and root of the flower is in the middle.

Here is the main tree of this park. This wisteria is 140-year-old tree and it's so amazing how wide the flower part.

Just beautiful!!

Another great view is here. Two wisteria reach here from both side on the top and Azalea is full blooming in the ground.

Beauty collaboration of Wisteria and Azalea!!

End of April through early May is the great time to visit Ashikaga Flower Park. It takes 60 minutes train ride from metro Tokyo.

Flower Park Website (Japanese):
http://www.ashikaga.co.jp/index2.html

* * * * *
"Wisteria" call "Fuji" in Japaese.
This fuji is not same as Mt. Fuji. Chinese character is different each other. Wisteria use "藤" and Mt. Fuji use "富士".

Japanese sweets "たいやき"

2009-04-27T23:14:00.002+09:00

Have you seen this figure??

It's Japanese sweet snack called "Taiyaki".

Japanese "Tai" means "Sea-bream"
Japanese "Yaki" means "Baked"

Always best if you can buy fresh baked Taiyaki at a night stall or side street.

It require special fish figure iron-pan on the grill. Baking procedure is pour pancake dough to the pan and put on the sweet soy bean paste "Azuki" and cover that by the pancake dough. Then use another fish figure iron-pan to press it. After 5 minutes later, there is a fresh baked "Taiyaki" in front of you:))

It's hard to get this fish figure iron-pan at home, so I usually eat it outside:) Taiyaki is popular for all the generation in Japan. Nowadays, you can find a Taiyaki ice-cream at a store.

Flower and Mt. Fuji

2009-04-21T22:18:00.001+09:00

I visited small island called "Awashima" in Shizuoka prefecture. Awashima have Aquarium and fine hotel. If you can visit fine day to island, there are several great views of Mt. Fuji from hotel.

When I left at home, it was clouded, but next morning was gorgeous. I enjoyed view of Mr. Fuji from hot springs, hotel room and hotel garden. This picture was taken at hotel garden.

Such a beautiful place!

This hotel has fine Italian restaurant. I enjoyed lovely dinner with my family at night.

Food was great and this photo looks so professional!
I love my Ricoh camera:))

Sakura is blooming well!!

2009-03-19T15:01:00.011+09:00

"Harumeki" Sakura is full blooming right now.

Sakura's blooming time is so short, so I was so pleased to see full blooming today. It was such a nice day to walk around under the Sakura.

Could you tell where is Mt. Fuji on the picture above? There is a white spot on the left side of the picture. Mt. Fuji is covered with the snow this time of the season, so this is a view of Mt. Fuji from here.

This area called "Haruki-michi" locating next to Kano river in Kanagawa, Japan.

Great contrast of light pink sakura and yellow nanohana:)

"Nanohana" means "field mustard".

Girl's day

2009-03-03T11:17:00.008+09:00

March 3 is called "Hina-Matsuri". It's a doll's festival for girls.
We display doll's like below and appreciate our health and happiness.

Whole set of the doll is quite big, so we only display two main doll this year.

We had a family party to celebrate my grand mother's BD (Feb 25), my mother's BD (Feb 28) and girl's day last Sunday.

As you can tell, my niece, my mother and my grand mother in the photo.
:))
It's nice to have round cake for Birthday party.

Two layers of sponge cake with whipped cream. Layered whipped cream include sliced peach and top layer has strawberry. It was very light taste, so we could eat a lot:)

_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

Definition of Doll's day:

March 3rd is celebrated as the Girl's Day, or the Festival of Dolls. People display graceful dolls in ancient court costumes on a tier of 5 or 7 shelves covered with scarlet cloth. These dolls represent the Emperor and Empress, the court ladies, the ministers and the court musicians. The girls are expected to be as elegant as these courtly ladies.
Young girls wear their beautiful Kimono and get together before the display and have a good time, eating sweet rice crackers (Hina arare) and drinking white sake (Shirozake). It isalso known as the Peach Festival.
[Ref. A Handbook Introducing Japan in English]

Bonsai???

2009-02-26T00:43:00.005+09:00

It's amazing how beautiful this tree is!

Looks so delicate!
Big surprise would be this is a candy tree.
Can you believe this tree is eatable???

I went to attend Japanese sweets festival other day. They had several sweets collection in the space. This tree was most impressed one from there. You can eat everything on the table:)

Plum orchard in Odawara, Japan

2009-02-24T20:47:00.010+09:00

February is the season of plum blossom in Odawara, Japan.

I went to see plum tree at Soga Bairin (Plum orchard in Soga, Odawara) last Sunday. Weather was not so nice, but photo turned out well!!

Plum started blooming end of the January this year. It's amazing we still can enjoy this view. Plum flower last much longer than Sakura.

*
Today's words:
Japanese (Kanji) = English
- Soga (曽我) = Area name.
- Bairin (梅林) = Plum Orchard
- Ume (梅) = Plum
*
- - - \^o^/- - -

This pink plum tree called "Shidare-ume".

Pink is so pretty!!
It's hard to tell the difference from Sakura, isn't it?

I found a useful website about Odawara.
Please take a look at this URL (^o^)

Butterbur sprout : ふきのとう

2009-02-21T23:55:00.005+09:00

ふきのとう (Fuki-no-tou) means "Butterbur sprout".

Butterbur sprout is one of the message of Spring. We can find this plant under the snow end of the winter. Though, my hometown doesn't get much snow, so we just see it on the ground.

This plant is little bit bitter fravor, but we think that is the Spring taste. It is tasty if you cook with soy sauce or tempura. We chose to have tempura.
.
Butterbur sprout tempura with ground raddish.

.
Mother and I fixed Vegitable tempra for dinner.
It was big portion of tempura for 2 persons, but we ate them all:))

Those were Butterbur sprout, Mushroom, Squid and Asparagas.

New story coming soon!

2009-02-21T01:30:00.000+09:00

* * * * * * * * * * * *

I'm typing this message from Japan. I've lived in California for my work last 3 years, but that duty was over.
Now my Japanese life is back and I enjoy sending message on the web, so I decide to use this page to introduce my life in Japan.

I'm going to send information of Japanese cultures and foods.

Hope you can get some ideas of life in Japan.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Fresh blueberry!!

2008-08-27T07:31:00.000+09:00

*****Macha cake and Blueberries*****

I prepared macha (= Green tea) cake for friends BBQ party, but that was not enough to serve everybody. So I decided to eat at home.
It turned out well. I got one pack of fresh blueberry for my macha cake.
I could eat it as fresh, but I made blueberry sauce before it ruined.

Recipe:
- Fresh blueberry..... 200g
- 1/2 Lemon ..... Squeeze
- Brown sugar .....60g

It's so easy. You just mix everything together and boil. Then cook 4-5 minutes in the low heat.
*cooking*

I could have another cake next day:))
Blueberry sauce and Macha sponge cake covered by whipped cream

Celebrate Birthday!

2008-07-18T10:18:00.000+09:00

*** Celebrate each other ***
My friend's BD is 13th and I'm 16th of July. So we celebrated our BD each other in my room.

I fixed tomato & avocado salad and stuffed portobello mushroom.

My friend fixed asparagus risotto with big scallops. This risotto was so tasty, I really enjoyed it.

Then here is our BD cake!!!

It was really nice to celebrate together. We share our happiness and procedure of cooking:))

Flute Recital in this week

2008-06-10T05:09:00.000+09:00

I'll have another Flute Choir Recital coming Wednesday. If you are around, please stop by!

Flute Choir Recital
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
8:00-9:00pm

Ensemble Room
at Community School of Music and Arts

Allegro Acherzando -------- C.P.E. Bach
Sonata in D Major ---------- Johann Joachim Quantz (5parts: Vivace, Largo, Riguadon, Menuett, Vivace)
Sakura Sakura -------- Traditional Japanese
The Mini Big Band "Dixi" -------- Siegfried Burger
Scarf Dance -------- Cecile Chaminade
Menuet Antique -------- Scheurer
Jazzy Flutes -------- Hans P. Keuning(3parts: Doggy's Flirt, Song for Young Lady, Crazy Flutes)

Community School of Music and Arts
230 San Antonio Circle
Mountain View, CA 94040
http://www.arts4all.org/contactus/mapdirections.htm

Tiramisu at home

2008-05-18T14:26:00.000+09:00

***First time to fix***

I love to eat Tiramisu at restaurant. I never thought I could make one at home until Ginny asked me about that. I felt like to make one this weekend, so I did it!!!

It was tasty and didn't take much time for preparation.

These are today's ingredients.

You just mix egg york and mascapone cheese, then add meringue. Layer soaked cookies by espresso-brandy and mixer on the dishes. Put on the cocoa powder before serving.

Tiramisu will be my favorite cooking:)

Artist interview in front of White House

2008-05-01T09:18:00.001+09:00

Look! Famous artist are doing the video conferencing from Washington DC and our virtual museum. Isn't that fun?

Modern Art Museum by dumpr.net

Ginny's art show

2008-05-01T02:51:00.001+09:00

Hi, I created digital art show today. This painting was done by my good friend, Ginny.
She painted this in Washington State middle of this month. I already reserved different painting from her last trip, but this one is another favorite one.

Isn't this nice?

Museum by dumpr.net

Fresh Oyster under the blue sky

2008-04-01T10:21:00.000+09:00

Three friends and I went Tomales Bay Oyster firm for picnic yesterday.

Picnic area is first come and first serve. When we went there before noon, we got last open table.

We bought 6 dozen of oyster shells and clacked them all. One friend taught us how to open up the oyster shell.

Look at this fresh oyster!!!

I ate with lemon and soy sauce. That was so delicious:)

Tofu Hamburger

2008-02-06T13:53:00.000+09:00

***Tofu Hamburger***

It was simple and tasty!!
I just mixed all the left over from Dinner.

Ingredients:

Tofu, Tuna, Green Onion, Flour and Japanese seasoning

Gravy:

Oyster Sauce, Soy Sauce, Sesami Oil and Chopped Green Onion

Flute performance

2008-01-24T16:48:00.001+09:00

Our performance is over

We did our best!!!

This is our group in this time.

Invitation

2008-01-15T08:55:00.000+09:00

***INVITATION***

I'll talk about music not foods.
It's very small concert, but please stop by if you are around.

January 23, 2008
Wednesday, 8-9PM
Reay Recital Room
Community School of Music and Arts
230 San Antonio Circle
Mountain View, CA 94040
Direction

Flute Ensemble

1.) Menuet from Orpheus (Title)
............Gluck (Composer)
2.) Album Leaf
............Schumann
3.) Menuett
............Rejcha
4.) An intrada for Jazz Trio
............C Norton
5.) Air from the Suite in D
............J S Bach
6.) Konzert
............Telemann

Mochi before New Year

2008-01-05T09:26:00.000+09:00

Our family made "mochi" which is rice cake at home. It is part of the Japanese tradition to make mochi for New Year's in the end of December. Most of Mochi will use New Year cooking, but some of the portion we ate in fresh on December 30, 2007.

All the images of Mochi:

with Azuki bean paste

with Daikon radish and seaweeds

with Kinako(Soybean Flour)

with Natto and Seaweeds

I love Azuki, Kinako and Daikon taste!!

Smoke Salmon Pasta #1

2007-12-21T05:59:00.000+09:00

I have been fixing salmon meal every night in this week. It was carbonara style last night. I used salmon instead of bacon. I enjoyed cooking and tasting.

Recipe

Stir smoke salmon(Usually it would be bacon) with butter
Add milk and liquid whip cream
Add parmesan cheese
Add touch of salt and pepper
Mix with Pasta
Take off pan from fire and mix with egg york
Arrange on dish and put on dill on top

Smoke Salmon

2007-12-20T05:30:00.001+09:00

*** Weekend Lunch ***

I got such a nice package from Special person. That package came from Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle. Isn't that nice??

Tha package had not only salmon but also box of Cheesecake, cookies, chocolate. Two pack of big salmon was great. Look at this size of fish fillet.

I haven't cook for a while, so my friend Y-chan and I went shopping to get something goes with this salmon. We bought Bagel, cream cheese, dill, cheese and salad. We could have some wine with it.

We had smoke salmon with Bagel. Spread cream cheese on the top of slice of Bagel and put on flaky salmon and dill.

We enjoyed nice meal and conversation!

Tsuke-men: Cold Ramen Noodle

2007-10-08T09:23:00.000+09:00

I bought two pack of ramen noodles (egg noodle) at Japanese Grocery Store. So I fixed two kinds of cold noodle for my supper in this week. This style would call Tsuke-men in Japanese. "Tsuke" means dip in and "men" means noodle.

One dish I put on sprouts, sea weeds, bamboo shoots and sliced tomato over egg noodle. I picked up one bite of the egg noodles and dipped in the soup.
This soup based on soy bean paste and chicken broth.Another evening, I select thin sliced fried egg and sea week on top of the egg noodle and used same soup as before.

It cold noodle is nice to have hot day like today in Palo Alto!

Eggplant Soup

2007-09-27T15:04:00.000+09:00

Japanese style Eggplant soup

I found "Myouga" that is Japanese ginger from farmer's market. Myouga has nice aroma itself. You may use it Japanese thin white noodle called Soumen. It gives nice additional taste. I love to use Myouga for clear soup like this picture.

Ingredients: Eggplant, Onion, Myouga(Japanese ginger), Egg, Soy Source, Salt, Japanese soup stock.

Eggplant Risotto

2007-09-26T13:19:00.000+09:00

I haven't put on any pictures for a while. I recently like to cook risotto for my supper. Risotto is an Italian name, but I believe this word is popular in U.S.

I got nice fresh eggplant from Farmer's market last Sunday. Tonight, I cooked eggplant risotto with tomato sauce.

Ingredients: Rice for risotto, diced onion, shitake mushroom, eggplant, Japanese ginger, white wine and water. Cooking time was 20 minutes. It is very easy to cook.

Genova style pasta

2007-02-26T12:29:00.000+09:00

Tonight my meal was seafood pasta with Genova pesto. I usually add tomato source with it, but today I enjoyed simple genova pesto.

I have been watching 79th Academy award this evening. I am looking for to see what is a best picture in this year. It will take more time to find out.

Tonight, I saw Japanese actor, Ken Watanabe & actress, Rinko Kikuchi on the TV. Ken Watanabe was nominated XXX actor last year in "Sayuri". Sayuri is a story of gaisha. Rinko Kikuchi is nominated Supporting Actress of "Babel" in this year. I haven't seen the movie "Babel" yet, so I'll add this movie to wish list in Netflix.

Apple cake

2007-02-24T16:45:00.000+09:00

*** Apple cake***

I had one old apple to use in my refrigerator, so I baked German Style Apple Cake.

Original ingredients:
Butter: 100g
Flour: 150g
Sugar: 100g
Egg: 2 pcs
Baking powder: ts 1/2
Lemon peel: ts 1/2
Apple: 2-3

I measured everything half and used brown sugar instead of white one.

One bite taste turned out my night snack:)

Recipe: Chocolate Cookies

2007-02-14T10:38:00.000+09:00

**What you need?**

Unsalted butter: 120 g
Powdered sugar: 60 g
Salt: a little
Egg yolk: 1
Flour: 150 g
Cocoa powder: 20 g
Roasted sliced almonds: 40 g

**Cooking**

1. Soften butter (not melt)

2. Add Sugar & Salt to mix

3. Add Egg yolk

4. Add 1/3 of flour & cocoa powder

5. Add sliced almonds

6. Add rest of the powder and mix quickly
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7. Divide by two portions. Then make column sharp with dough and wrapped.

8. Refrigerate 30 minutes

9. Unwrapped dough and cut it in the width of 1 cm

10. Baked 15 min in 180C (375F)

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For Valentine's Day

2007-02-13T11:41:00.000+09:00

**Chocolate cookies**

I was baking Chocolate cookies with sliced almonds on Sunday. I used Japanese recipe to make one. It turned out well.

I was so happy to see this nice sharp and took to work this morning.

Cooking by myself

2006-12-19T16:49:00.000+09:00

I cooked Bulgarian Cheese Scrolls, but it didn't turn out well. When I baked, all the stuffing come out from the phyllo pastry. I wonder what was wrong.

I used this phyllo pastry for wrapping cheese stuffing.

Cooking start --> -->

Brush over butter on phyllo

Wrap carefully...

Bake 20 minutes in 375F

Walnuts breadstick

2006-12-13T13:03:00.000+09:00

I looked over Catherine's cooking recipes and my notes on the weekends then I finally tried one of it. I just bought Dough Blender, so I wanted to use that one, too. I picked up very simple one. It took only 30 minutes to bake it from scratch.

I did "Walnuts breadstick" from "Italian olive breadstick" recipe.
I was out of olives that time, so I used walnuts instead. That worked well and it tuned out nice breakfast for me. Also, Dough Blender was so easy to use it. I enjoyed cooking!

This simple cooking can be done every day:)

Luxurious meal - Beef Wellington

2006-12-12T08:35:00.000+09:00

It is amazing to know a recipe of luxurious dish like Beef Wellington. Catherine selected high quality of ingredients all the time. Tender beef, pork pate & mushroom were wrapped by pastry. That looks gorgeous and taste wonderful. Once you know how to cook, you just need to have all the ingredients and have some party with wine. Everybody would enjoy it:)

To learn how to cook this meal, you can take Catherine's cooking class. You may contact Catherine, Cookatcats@yahoo.com , for more detail.

Russian Beef Stroganov

2006-11-27T12:15:00.000+09:00

Today I learned how to cook Russian Beef Stroganov and Bulgarian Cheese Scrolls. It was amazing how quick Catherine can demonstrate for us. She prepared all the ingredients in the kitchen and just cook with her magic hands.

Beef Stroganov: It was discovered one of the chief in Russia long time ago. Russian always serve this meal with potatos. Also Stroganov has tomato paste for flavor. If you see both combination on the plate, it is Russian style.
I used to see Beef Stroganov with pasta in U.S. I guess it was not traditional way to eat.
She recommended to use fillet or rump steak. Try to avoid over cook with this beef. I enjoyed tender meet with nice Russian flavor.

Bulgarian Cheese Scrolls: It is cheese stuffing wrapped by Phyllo pastry. It looks easy to make staffing with feta cheese and egg. Phyllo pastry is so thin, so she was gently wrapping it. After wrapping stuffing, she twisted like left picture. And put on chopped scallions and some spices. This picture is before baking in the oven. It will bake around 20 minutes to be brown on top. It was so tasty, I loved it. I can make it as a starter when I have a party at home .

Catherine's kitchen(cookatcats@yahoo.com) locates in San Jose. We learn cooking procedure and recipe in her class. Then tasting all the food she cook for us. Wish many people share this experience with me.

Beginning of the lesson

2006-11-17T03:18:00.000+09:00

Catherine's class always have some desserts for us.
When I get there, there were nice whole cake and tarte on the table.
She prepared nice berry tea for us. Catherine and attendees visited each other beginning of the class. This is nice idea to meet new friends and also be relaxed before class.

I could taste 2 kinds of cakes, Coconuts & pecan sponge cake(right side on top) and Pumpkin & almond tarte(below here) today.

Catherine said whatever inspire of her that day, she bake for us. What a nice extra food! I love it.
She also have some class for sweets on the weekday evening. That would be nice to attend because I could get some tip of baking cake.

If you would like to get a schedule of this cooking class, please contact to Catherine's Kitchen (cookatcats@yahoo.com) now.

Found cooking class in San Jose

2006-11-13T15:49:00.000+09:00

I found this Catherine's Kitchen, one of the private cooking class through Japanese SNS called Mixi. This SNS is similar to MySpace in U.S.

This class is locating in San Jose.
Look at left picture, you go through this neighborfood for her class.

Catherine has so much experience of cooking and she has quite unique style of teaching.

Here is nice table set for our meal tasting, review today's class with Catherine and visit attendees. It looks like one of the picture from magazine. But it is real!
I think you could tell this class is something different from others from here.
I believe main idea is learn western meal recipes. We learn not only the recipe but also how to do the western style of table set, quality of the hospitality from her.

I will post more detail of cooking class day by day.