Memuro Tower

Eiko and I have decided that we only make the same three things over and over again. Tonight, we tried to break out of our cycle. Based on a picture I saw on the internets, we came up with this:



Agedofu, Red Pepper Mashed Potatoes, Eggplant-Bean Roll-up, Roasted Red Peppers with a red wine roux.

It was yummy.

Step one (cut a hole in a box): Slice up your ginger and stab it with a fork to make holes :)


Step two: put it in a pan with 2 cups of sugar and a tablespoon of water. On the lowest heat, bring it to a boil for about an hour...


Step 3: After a while it'll all start to stick together, once no more syrup oozes out remove it form the heat and keep playing with it until the sugar start to crust off of the ginger. Spread the whole mess out on a plate or something to let it finish drying and (hoorah!) you have tasty candied ginger!

I was super surprised at how easy this was. The bonus, not only to you get the candied ginger, you get a bunch of yummy ginger-sugar!

Long time no blog!

I'm so excited that I've actually been busy lately. All of my sitting around earlier in the Summer (which now feels as though it's ending quick) had me worried that I'd never leave my house again. Luckily I've been out and about. I've been over to Sapporo a couple times this month. The first time I went with friends Blair and Chris to visit the beer gardens and to see the Susukino Matsuri. It was a pretty relaxing trip. 

I also went to the Rising Sun Rock Music Festival with Kasi, Chris and Lauren. It was good time and they had yummy non-fair food - like corn and cucumbers! I have to admit, I didn't really didn't enjoy the music all that much because I couldn't understand it at all. So, Kasi, Lauren and I went to Sapporo proper to go to a dance party... altogether less relaxing than last weekend.

 The end of the Summer is also birthday time so I ended up making three cakes. The first one I made was for Adam, Sakura Cake with Green Tea frosting. Those pink things are supposed to be Sakura Petals, but Adam confused them for an abstract expression of my inner artist. The pink one was for Kasi and was spicy-chocolate with Vanilla frosting. She loves pink. I made Eiko a Vanilla Bean Cake with Chocolate Mousse frosting. It was pretty good, but my first attempt at Marzipan was kinda a bunk...

Fed at last, fed at last, thank god almighty, I'm fed at last.

I've been sick for the past week, which means I've not been eating well or enough. Lots of cold soba, pancakes and rice and beans. Well thankfully, I feel better and Eiko dropped off three huge bags of fresh basil she picked up from a farmer we got to know when I was going though my licensing ordeal (from the farmer: big bag = 100 yen. from the grocery store: ten leaves = 100 yen). The gift was not only to make me feel better, but to apply subtle pressure for me to make her more pesto (she doesn't have a food processor or a blender...). She came over last night for a two person pizza party (which we do every month or so) and I made her make the pesto herself. It turned out great! While she was doing that, I made some basil-tofu ricotta (from Vegan with a Vengeance), which is like drugs it's so good. We topped the pizza with our two basil creations, tomato sauce, shredded komatsuna, eggplant and garlic. I almost always put eggplant on pizza because once it gets soft in the heat of the oven, it has a really nice bite to it - something like cheese but altogether more pleasing. The flavor of the eggplant is all ninja-like, it hides so well, so even if you're a hater, you'll enjoy it.  

Procrastination gone horribly right.

Tomorrow is my friend Adam's birthday. I was supposed to make his cake today. I skipped out on class tonight to do so. I didn't make his cake. I went to the store to get almond powder to make marzipan (they were out), I went to a farm to by basil (the only place that you can buy basil at a reasonable price; they were closed) so I came home and made bread - naturally (of course I chose to procrastinate with something several times more difficult my original plan).

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I love that Japan has square (rectangularly-prismatic) bread pans. It really adds something. Also, I would like to add that this is my first successful sandwich-style loaf. All of the others have been utter failures.

Another thing I've come to understand that the phrase, "The greatest thing since sliced bread," is a lot stronger of a sentiment that I had originally thought. Slicing bread is a pain, and requires more skill thank I actually have.

Anyway, there you have it. Rectangularly-Prismatic Whole Wheat Bread. 

You've been foodened!

Ooops! no Pictures

We had a nyerd-fest this weekend. I brought my camera, but I guess I'd forgotten how un-photo-worthy a bunch of guys sitting around playing video games is. I completely forgot to take out my camera. However, it was still fun times, and I even won at Smash Bros. a couple of times... go me!

I don't want to post with out a picture - so here is the lunch I made to fortify

myself for the 3.5 hour drive to Sapporo. It's only left-over veggies from meals earlier in the week - but they stood on their own pretty well. 

Garlic-Sesame Stir-fried Quinoa with Squash (thanks Eiko!), Red Bell Peppers and Spinach. I wasn't expecting this, but the quinoa is quite frisky when you fry it; little grains staged an assault on me towards the end - popping out with complete disregard to self preservation.

Goodbye Camping

This weekend we said goodbye to the teachers who are going back to their countries this Summer. We went camping up in the mountains in Shikaoi, a town in the district where I live. Quite a bit of fun all-in-all. 

My parter-in-crime, Eiko, and I drove up Saturday around noon, after making one of my students take a picture of us, and landed at the campsite a few hours later. I'm no veteran camper, but I was a little sad that the campsite was very campsite-y. Although, it was still really nice. Among the other campers, there were a couple cranky-with-the-loud-foreigners types, some sustainable culture group and some families with cute kids who found things like deer jaw bones and didn't appreciate them. 

After setting up camp, we grilled up some food, explored the shallow parts of the lake and sat around chatting. I learned how to chop wood and

 had an epic (25 picture) battle with one piece that just didn't want to split. 

Once I was done proving my manhood, we headed down to the lake-side onsen/hotel area to watch the White Snake festival (Ainu legend tells that they were led to the area by two white snakes). I was pretty cynical about the whole thing (wrongful appropriation of subjected cultures and all; though, I'm in no position to judge). However the festival it self was interesting, except I could not stop commenting about how amazing it was that they've managed to preserve this (26 year old) tradition so long, and how they were able to, so authentically, replicate the traditional Ainu spotlights and fog machines. After the dances, we wrote wishes on paper lanterns and set them to drift out over the lake. They were really pretty, for 5 minutes, until the

 100 yen candles inside went out. It's nice to know that you can combine economy with with appeals to the universe. I hope the sheep-god will be able to read my wish even when it isn't lit up...

Back at the camp site, we grilled up a few more snacks over our

 very large fire and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Some friends from the town joined us for a while and treated up to a little music and fire-dancing. I ended up going to bed a little early, happy to be sleeping in a tent again. It had been too long.