Monday, July 30, 2012

Just in case you are wondering ....

Our basil is doing quite nicely. This was last week. It's even bigger now, so I'm off today to find a pot and some dirt.

Eggplant

I’m not sure I even know what to saw about the amount of eggplant we’ve been receiving at work. It’s in season and everyone, apparently, plants way more than they need. My solution is to plant less eggplant. But then, I do not like to eat eggplant.

I often take some from work in the name of experimentation and try to transform it into something edible - and transportable, as I would need to be able to give it away!
In the end, I made some amazing eggplant bread (if I do say so myself). Here is the last one all wrapped up and ready to give to my landlady. Of course, if she likes it too much, you know what will happen (see the carrot entry)!


Waiting for the oven!
I then tried to make eggplant chips. I found several recipes, which seemed good. Some people got their chips crispy, but I never did. I think I might have to take the suggestion of one cook and let the eggplant sit in the fridge for an hour or longer to draw the moisture out. Everyone else recommended much less than an hour but that didn’t seem to work.
Good thing eggplant is still in season. I can keep experimenting! 


Thursday, July 26, 2012

Cultural Differences

This was top of the first page of a pizza flyer. I don't think in the United States it would be advertised as kid friendly, as the small tomato face on the left indicates.

But, it's only $12 for a medium and they deliver. In addition, it's a very simple pizza - what you see is what you get. Toppings are corn, mayonnaise and parsley sprinkles.

Itadakimasu!
(That's Bon Appetite for English speakers - umm ... French speakers - umm ... English is hard!)


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Virtual Tour of Our Apartment


First, come in. Be sure to leave your shoes at the door.


 Then, to your right is the All-Purpose Cupboard and the bathroom.




It seems rather self-explanatory which room is which.


















Then come on in to the kitchen. We are currently making dinner for my boss. She’ll be here in an hour or so. 





There is very little counter space, but I had the same amount in Chicago before I purchased a small piece of counter at a garage sale. I can’t get far enough back to show you the whole kitchen unless I use the cell phone (that explains a lot about the quality of some of the photos!), but I want to draw your attention to the cupboards. They are roomy, which is very handy. Except I can’t reach above the bottom shelf, and that only barely. Good thing I brought a David along!


We recently exchanged our fridge for a larger one, but the freezer is still too small for our preferred method of storing food. The stools came with the apartment, but they’re a little tall for the counter. We now have a couple chairs. See below.



Follow me around the corner to the breakfast nook. Note the new chairs.



And the rest of the apartment. Ta-Da! We took up the futons because we were having company for dinner. But this is our living room, bedroom, dining room, study, library, rec room, parlour... 
you get the idea.





On the floor in front of the window is our basil. Hopefully we'll be able to transplant it into a pot soon. Look:



So, this is where we live. It is not large, except compared to our other options for apartments. And we’re getting used to it. I still wish I had a bedroom so I could throw things in it and close the door when company comes, but this way the apartment gets cleaned much more often!

And just so you know, there’s still plenty of room for guests, as long as you don’t mind sleeping on a futon, so please come visit!

Monday, July 23, 2012

Umm....cookies?



Yesterday I made perfect brownies.
They are soft, gooey, moist, chewy and utterly heavenly.




Of course, according to the recipe, I should have ended up with cookies.

I Wish To Go To The Festival


Summer in Japan is not paradise. It is insanely humid; I need a shower by the time I get to work. The insects are huge and nasty-looking. Truly they are the biggest things I have ever seen, and that includes their wasps and bees. Well, that also includes their butterflies, so that’s cool. But their beetles .... ugh. Something that big just shouldn’t be flying, especially not straight at my head.

And yet -  heat, humidity and nasty bugs aside, summer is my favourite season in Japan.

Anyone around in Tokyo might remember my weekly summer phone calls: “There’s a festival this weekend - do you want to go?”

Summer Festival
And there was always "a festival this weekend." Summer in Tokyo is absolutely filled with them: traditional Japanese festivals, festivals by various embassies celebrating their culture, school festivals (well, those were mostly in the spring or fall, but close enough. I went to them all. Festivals, fairs, carnivals: I am a sucker for an outdoor celebration with fried food, amateur dancing, rigged games, and of course, shaved ice (called kakigori in Japanese).

A Takoyaki Stand
(That's Breaded and Fried Octopus, and yes, it's delicious)

One thing I often am reminded of: Tokushima is not Tokyo. The festivals here are not as plentiful. And there is no source of English news for small local events. This in essence means I haven not been to any festivals or other events since arriving here. That's an unusual and depressing situation for me to be in.

So, I was overjoyed when my landlady called last night: “There’s a festival tonight - do you want to go?”
The stage for dancing.

Do I want to go? Is summer humid?

Is water wet? Is ...well, you get the idea.

It was small, with only a few stands all selling the same thing, a small fireworks display, and we were late and missed the dancing. But it was fun. Of course it was fun - it was a festival!!!

Here we are at the first summer festival:
Todd, a former UI teacher
Ghen-ki, my current co-worker
Midori, our landlady
a random white woman in a Japanese outfit.

Next weekend is the Yoshinogawa Festival. It will be bigger. And I’ll be there with bells on. Or at least a yukata.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Summer Noise


I woke up yesterday morning to an awful noise. I thought the bike shop across the street was working on a particularly injured moped. "Is the shop even open yet? Did I sleep so long?"

Going to the screen door, I saw nothing unusual, and the noise was not coming from the bike shop. It was coming from a nearby tree. Finally my brain woke up enough to realise: it must be cicadas!

At home I love late summer for the cicada song. In Tokyo I never heard cicadas, and was bummed both summers I lived there. In Tokushima, though, it is different.  The cicadas have a different pitch, a different rhythm. It’s not the enjoyable hum I love.

Who knew there are different kinds of cicadas, each with their own song?

This morning, they did not wake me up. Maybe I’ll get used to the new song.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Kitchen Additions

5 kilograms of rice bought from a UI student.

Waiting for spaghetti!
The vegetables all from the same student as the rice.

The Hyakuen Shop: My Favourite Store


The other day David came in wearing a bow tie. He bought it “on a lark” at the Hyakuen shop.  The Hyakuen shop is a magnificent wonderland full of things we never knew we needed until seeing them on the shelves. It’s a dangerous as going to a garage sale with a pocket full of small bills. “Oooh, just one more thing ...”

By now you probably know that the Hyakuen shop is Japan’s equivalent to the dollar store. Only better.

The recycle shop is great for things like rice cookers and shelving units, but when you just need a ball of twine or chopsticks or silverware or your choice from a million types of pens or super glue, then the Hyakuen shop is the place to go.

The quality isn’t always very good - the soap is watery and the tissues can be scratchy - but it often is. My silicone baking  pans all came from there, and are lasting well. The flour sifter is as good as any other I have used. And the bow-tie - well - it’s just cool.

We still need a new garbage can (or seven - this is Japan, after all) and I need a dish to organise little things in the kitchen.

And the list grows.

A flour sifter, a small tray, and 120 envelopes:
315 yen.
(Just under $4)

Friday, July 13, 2012

What is it like living in Japan?


It’s just like living anywhere else. When I lived in Tokyo, I'd tell people that, but they didn’t believe me. “Oh, it must be so exciting!” they’d say.

Because people don’t believe me, and because you’ve wondered, here is my boring routine.

Tuesday through Friday I work in the afternoon and evenings. Remind me why I took a job that requires my concentration and focus during my least mentally productive times of the day?

I wake up around eight in the morning. Usually I wake up at 7:30, put the kettle on, and go back to bed for a half an hour.  This is my body’s concession to working at night. It tried to wake me up at 6:00 every morning for the first month, but I convinced it to sleep at least until 7:00, since it doesn’t go to sleep so early anymore.

While drinking my coffee, I check my email, read the news, and write blog entries. If I need to call the U.S., this is also a good time (10:00 a.m. in Japan is 8:00p.m. in Chicago). Also, I have make sure the garbage goes out. (What goes out today?)

(Hint, hint - This is also a good time for you to call us! 6:00 p.m. in the midwest is the earliest I’d suggest, but I’m likely to be awake even before that!)

My mornings are free. I have three or four hours of free time to bake (or ruin baked goods), clean (okay, I don’t do much other than wash dishes or clean up after cooking), or go to the grocery store. I don’t like wandering too far afield before work, since I don’t like to feel rushed while I’m out. I always think this time could be used more productively, but cooking, cleaning, and writing are productive enough.

I eat lunch and get ready for work. Sometimes I leave at noon, but often not until 1:00. Work, including commute, keeps me out anytime between noon and 10:00 p.m.

We eat dinner and watch an old Dr. Who, as I am trying to get caught up on the series since its earliest days.

We’re in bed no later than midnight, but usually earlier.

Saturdays are different. I leave at 8:30 a.m., and have six classes in a row. It’s a terribly busy day. Thankfully, I have an hour off at lunchtime! I also get to leave when my last class is finished, so I leave at 5:00, instead of having to hang around until six, like I would if my boss made me put in a full eight hours on Saturday.

It’s also the only day I can stop by the 100 yen shop on my way home from work.

(I’ll have to blog about the 100 yen shop sometime - it’s like a dollar store, only better).

Then it’s two days off.

On Sundays or more preferably Mondays, we go shopping at the “international store” which is too far away to visit before work. We try not to go shopping on Sundays, since the stores are really crowded then. However, it’s a good day to go if you’re looking for a free lunch; the grocery stores have many, many free samples on Sundays!

Sometimes I have to work - the trips to Osaka and the extra events we do are always on Sundays. Upon reflection, I guess that’s only been five Sundays in the past three months. It could be worse - it feels worse!

For the past few weeks it’s been too hot for the walking we like to do: exploring the city and wandering through rice fields, walking along the river, finding out what stores are nearby, etc. I can’t wait for the rainy season to be over and the humidity to drop. Truthfully, it isn’t the heat that’s so bad, but it’s more humid here than even Iowa  - I didn’t think that was possible. So even when it’s only in the upper 80s to 90 F, just sitting in the apartment has sweat rolling off us. We don’t go exploring when the weather is like this. We go do the grocery shopping we need and come back, and try to stay cool.

Next month I have two weeks off for the Japanese holiday of O-Bon. I’ll write more about it later, and David and I will explore the region a little bit better.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Fruit Crisp?


Last week I was staring at new fruit (see earlier blog post) without really a clue what to do with them.

In the end I decided to treat them like a cross between raspberries and rhubarb and pulled out my generic recipe for fruit crisp, which called for 2 cups of fruit. (Okay, in American terms it called for four cups of fruit, but I don’ t have that much oven space, that many pans, nor -as it turned out - that much fruit). All those berries I painstakingly de-seeded or pitted or whatever one does to yamamomo - came out to 1 3/4 cup of fruit to use in my recipe. But, I had nothing else to do with them, other than to make 1 3/4 cup of jam.

No big deal actually. The crumb mixture never makes enough anyway, so no worries there. The fruit mixture itself is thickened and sparingly drizzled on, so no worries there, either.

I took those berries and cooked them. I surrounded them with cinnamon and brown sugar and oats.

Oats.

That’s where I went wrong.

It’s one thing to know there are different kinds of oats. It’s another thing not being able to read the package. They looked like rolled oats rather than steel-cut oats. I always cook with rolled oats, so I wasn’t worried about that, either.

I should have been.

The fruit part of my “Fruit Crisp” is delicious.
The “Crisp” part of my “Fruit Crisp” is a misnomer.

I couldn’t believe how hard the oats were, even after an hour in the oven. I am so very, very disappointed.

My dessert should have been called “Yamamomo and Gravel”.

Monday, July 09, 2012

The Vegetables


Fresh basil waiting for spaghetti!

I never intended this to become a food blog. It turns out, though, that moving to Tokushima means I do two things: experiment on children and experiment with food. And since telling the world I experiment on children seems a bit dodgy - well, a food blog it is!

(I should probably add a disclaimer here about being a teacher, which is by its very nature an experiment about the best way to help children learn, since the search engines sometimes direct innocent bystanders to my blog when they’re searching for images of Japan. Google directs an unusual number of users to my J-3 retreat post from several years ago when they search for something along the lines of “Beautiful Nagasaki today”).

(And I just found out that one can inadvertently find my blog by Googling “How to make toaster oven brownies”, which would be a big disappointment for anyone looking for an actual cooking blog).

Yesterday began with two eggplants, two kabocha, a bagful of edamame and several pounds of potatoes taking up valuable space in the kitchen. We don’t have a lot of space, nor a deep and abiding love of all things vegetable. Especially these vegetables. Now, potatoes are good and necessary and I like edamame. I will eat pumpkin sometimes. In small portions. But I do not like eggplant. At all. Nor does David.

Potatoes!
However, I do love experiments and the idea of eating fresh from the garden. The idea of making bread out of eggplant the way one does carrots or zucchini or pumpkin grabbed hold of me and wouldn’t let go.

But, with the way work has been lately, I haven’t had much time for experimenting. Finally last night (after a five hour karaoke birthday party for my landlady), I was able to tackle the vegetables going bad in kitchen. The eggplants were on their last leg from waiting too long for my weekend. Truthfully, so was I. But, they could still be saved, and after a glass of wine, so could I.

Without a grater, I made carrot bread by peeling them into oblivion and putting the “peels” into the batter. That doesn’t work with eggplant. The skin was so tough I nearly peeled my fingers when the peeler slipped. So I slowly and carefully minced the eggplant into as small of pieces as I could manage. Seemed a waste of time, really. All that work on an eggplant.

But, I was determined to do my part for Queen and country. Or Emperor and someone else’s country.  Whatever.

The experiment was a success. Sort of. I made six loaves of eggplant bread. Soft and moist, spiced with cinnamon and allspice and cloves, it was delicious, except for one small problem. The problem with eggplant bread is it tastes like eggplants. Why does zucchini bread not taste like zucchini? I was hoping for more of the same. That didn’t work.

Eggplant bread on top right.
Kabocha and soybeans on the bottom right.
And the rest of the freezer.
Yes, that's as big as it gets here.
Meanwhile, I was blanching kabocha to put in the freezer and save for the next time I have a weekend and can make curry. Unfortunately, I cooked it too long. It’s no longer “blanched” but “cooked.” I hope it will be all right.

At least today I get to munch on pumpkin seeds. No photo of those - I ate them all too quickly!

Today for dinner is shepherd’s pie. That takes care of some of the potatoes. And there are still yamamomo in the refrigerator. It’s going to be another day of experimenting.




Someone, help! What are these????

Sunday, July 08, 2012

Photos from Tokushima

On my days off, we often go walking through Tokushima. Here are a few random shots of our neighbourhood in the summer. It's the rainy season here, which doesn't mean it rains everyday, but it means that the days are cloudy, hot and extremely humid. Although, sometimes it does rain fast and furious, like the typhoon of a couple weeks ago.







Hydrangeas are a symbol of Japan's rainy season,  but they always remind me of my best friend.





Near our home is this shrine which appears to be no longer in use, but I don't know the story behind it yet.







Before the typhoon the hollyhocks on my way to work were, as seen here, around six feet tall. Now, though, only a couple stalks are as tall as they were in this photo. Most of them were knocked in half.

















Sometimes, however, we stay in and David experiments with floating yen on a cup of water...


or with the camera and a flashlight.



Friday, July 06, 2012

Yamamomo


Our student the farmer is at it again. As it is, our fridge and freezer are full still of her corn and edamame and cucumbers and tomatoes. Then yesterday she brought a fruit I’ve never seen or even heard of.  It’s called Yamamomo in Japanese: 山桃. Literally, Mountain Peach, although it’s not actually a peach. It does, however, prefer to grow on mountains. And I found that it is a delicious little thing, but tricky.

I forgot to take a picture before I began cooking them. Oops.
I hope you can see them all right..


Yamamomo, how do I describe you?

With the tartness of rhubarb,
and the colour of a raspberry,
With the shape of a lychee,
and the pit of a cherry:

I am intrigued.
I am curious.

I may even be a convert.

But my kitchen is stained from the pain of your seed:
Red juice spoiling my clothes and my mood.

I am determined.
I am frustrated.

And I have to leave for work.

You have won, little berry.

For now.

But I will be home early tonight. And then... watch out! It’s into the oatmeal and brown sugar with you.

Sunday, July 01, 2012

Which garbage goes out today?

This is the post you have all been waiting for. I know - I can hear you clamoring for it clear across the ocean. Everyone is asking each other, “Sure, teaching is great, but I want to know the really important question: What is the garbage collection like in Japan?”

No? Well, you should be. It’s very interesting and fun ... Okay, maybe fun isn’t exactly the precise word, but trying to remember the garbage collection days every week keeps me on my toes.

Yes, days, as in plural.

Even as I write this, I am trying to remember what category goes out today. The system in Tokushima (and Tokyo and probably the whole of Japan), is complicated enough to require a pictorial calendar.

Garbage collection days from April through Sepetember

Yes, a pictoral calendar. Shown here:

There are six different categories, each with its own pick-up day. 
For example, those are newspapers on the second Thursday of each month.
Bottles and cans are the green symbol.
Plastic wrappings and bags would be the yellow symbol.
Clarifying what belongs where.

Garbage is divided into two categories: burnable and non-burnable. Burnable includes kitchen scraps and paper, so it goes out twice a week.

As you can see, there’s even a day for books. In Tokyo, there was a day for old clothes, as well, but Tokushima does not appear to off that option. 

Garbage cans in Japan are usually long receptacles divided into two or three sections, nicely labeled for ease of use. Unfortunately, we don’t have one of those, so we have an almost organised system of four plastic bags next to the fridge. Milk cartons and other boxes are washed, flattened and hidden in the entryway cupboard.

Today nothing goes out, and that rarely happens. Good - that means I can stay in my pajamas just a little bit longer!