Oh crap has it really been that long?

So politics kept me busy along with a seemingly endless list of things to do. Here I am, almost 4 months later and no posts. Well that ends today! I've been cooking up a storm.

Peanut Butter Cookies.
Biscuits with Sausage Gravy.
Pumpkin Pie. (including the pie crust
Cheese Straws.
Guacamole.
Baked Macaroni and Cheese.
Breakfast Casserole.

That's about all I can think of for my "adventurous" food experiments. I'm getting pretty good at baking in my oven now, I'm willing to tackle almost anything. I made a nice, dark roux for my cream gravy, probably the first time I've ever cooked roux longer than just a few minutes. The pies(all 3 of them >.<;; ) were fantastic, adapted from a recipe my mother gave me. Baked macaroni is a family(as in myself and Andrea) favorite. Cheese straws may sound exciting and hard, but it's basically strips of pie crust with cheese. They're also amazingly good.

I've finally settled on a good breakfast sausage recipe, modified from a few different sources. Now if only I could find a good Italian sausage recipe, I'd be set. I've taken to drying sage and marjoram in my fridge. It has an amazing ability to dry out chicken and other meat while they're still in the package, so I put that to use by leaving store bought herbs in there for a few weeks. Great for the sausage ^_^

Hopefully next time it won't be so long between posts.

Back in Japan

I manage to get a last minute trip to visit family at home, so I jumped on a plane. I got to eat a lot of my favorite foods and I came to a realization. I don't like fast food. I ate it because it was convenient, but every time I did, I felt awful. It probably won't stop me from doing it occasionally, but I'm going to put in a real effort to not have to settle for that crappy food.

I made pesto for dinner last night. I wish the basil hadn't cost me $8. I kept some of the stems of the basil with some baby leaves on them, maybe I can get them to grow a little and I can plant them and get some basil for free. I'm going to try and make some classic chocolate chip cookies for the guests coming over this weekend. I promised to make Mami mashed potatoes the next time she came by, so I'll have to come up with a menu that includes that. We'll see what I come up with.

My Future Kitchen Part 2

Part two of my shopping list for my kitchen, long and short term alike. Last time I focused on pots and pans. This time, electrics. I have already amassed an ice cream maker, food processor, electric knife, skillet, waffle iron, hand mixer and stick blender. I am missing some key things though.

What kitchen doesn't have a stand mixer? Long before I even knew what it was, it was the most recognizable appliance from my grandmother's house. KitchenAid is still the standard, and I will not wander from that choice. Mine will be the 5 qt with the hinged top and locking bowl model. The hinged top allows you to move the mixing implement out of the way while mixing, and that makes things easier. I also intend to have the meat grinder attachment, for sausage making.

One of the biggest memories I have is of my family's electric griddle. Part griddle, part waffle maker, it was the perfect device for waffles, pancakes, french toast and especially grilled cheese. The big squares are great for cooking lots of things, and I cannot imagine not having one in my kitchen. It is a pity then, that waffle maker/griddle combos are hard to find now. I have a waffle maker already, so I have settled on a large single piece digital griddle. The digital lets me pick the temperature setting specifically, instead of depending on vague settings like medium and hot.

I own at least 4 thermometers, two old alcohol filled and two digital. One of the digital is of the probe variety, with a heat proof cord that you can stick in a grill or oven. What I lack is a digital thermometer for candy making and frying. You can ask Andrea, the last time I made candy I attached the thermometer I have to the cabinet above her stove, and carefully dangled the probe into the caramel from three feet above the goo. Not dangerous at all right? I picked one that comes with a shield that protects the digital readout from oil and hot candy. That will certainly help make my candy making a smoother process.

Finally comes the electric kettle. Most people don't see all the great uses for this, which is sad, because it is a useful, safe device that makes all kinds of cooking easier. Auto shutoff, cool to touch plastic and a quick heating element make electric kettles the most efficient way to boil water for things like tea and coffee. It also can be used for things like stocks for soup making, have you ever tried adding cold stock to hot soup? What about replacing lost water while making stock or pot roast? It's a really good tool for adding hot water to pans for cheesecake baking or even poaching. In short, if you really like to cook, you should have one.

Look forward to part 3 coming soon.

Live and learn

So I attempted the make rice crispies today. It didn't go as well as I'd hoped. First problem is that I only have short grain japanese rice, I really should be using long grain, it cooks differently. I also don't own a real oven, and from my understanding of the industrial method for making this, you need a slow even heating to turn them from mushed rice to crispies like flakes. I'm not giving up though. I'm going to buy some long grain rice and try again. I'm going to try and find a non stick pan for the toaster oven and get two of them to cut back on the burning of the rice before it's even had a chance to pop. Maybe next time I write about this it will be a success, although, the ones that were golden (as opposed to black or not cooked at all) weren't too bad.

Sadly, I went to the store, and they didn't have long grain rice or non stick toaster oven pans. I may not attempt this again, I need at least the long grain rice to have the right consitancy. I'll keep looking, there are a few more stores I can check.

My Future Kitchen Part 1

I've been contemplating what I desire my kitchen to contain when I do return to my home country next year. To that end I began compiling a list of gadgets, pans and tools that I want, ranging from necessities to the obscure. So far I have a $1500 list, though only about $900 is necessary, things like basic pans, a mixer and some small tools are part of that amount. Many things like the pans and the mixer will last me until my kids are deciding what their kitchen will be supplied with. My goal for the necessary items is two years after I move back, 5 years for all of the "unnecessary" items.

I have settled on All-Clad stainless for my pans. Oh, I know, "How are you going to decide which pan is good without looking and feeling the pan?" Well, I'll be honest, every trip to Bed Bath and Beyond turned into an hour long excursion through the kitchen wares until I made it to the device I intended to buy. I've picked up every pan in that store at least 3 times. Except of course the all copper pans, no matter how good they are, I won't spend that much money on a pan. The line of pans that I like is aluminum sandwiched between steel(the aluminum helps regulate the heating and keep it even). I've picked out a 2 qt saucier, yes the name is a little fruity, but it is the perfect pan for things that need to be whisked when cooked (pudding, custard, gravy, sauces). I've settled on a 3 qt, 10 inch saute pan, as well as a 10 inch fry pan. All of these are completely stainless and can be cooked both on a stove, and in an oven.

I have picked one pan, or pot in this case, that is not stainless. I already have a small stainless pot, but for things like stock making, I need something larger. A LTD line 7 qt stock pot. Stainless on the inside, anodized aluminum on the outside, it is a good tall, narrow pot for making stocks, soups, chili's or whatever else I can come up with. This pot costs $300 and is not part of my "must haves." I do however, plan on getting it before too long, once we're settled somewhere.

I also need an iron skillet. This has become obsolete in a lot of modern cooking, but there is plenty of uses for it, and I am a history buff, as well as a foodie. This means that I want to use the historic recipes that have been edited for non stick or stainless steel pans, if only because I need to know where I came from, to know where it is I am going. Plus they're cheap, $20 will buy you a 10 inch model.

I have no need for more non-stick pans right now, I have several and I can do just about everything I want with those. I left my heart and my toffee making with a 2 qt saucepan in Wichita. Can't wait to make candy again. Have I ever mentioned the 80-90% humidity here in the summer?

The last pot I desire will be a pressure cooker. A small (relatively) 6 qt pot will be the one for me, big enough for making soups and grains for a whole family, not too big that I can't make just enough for 2 people. While cheaper than the stock pot on my list ($70 versus $300) this also is not a must have, but a long term item that you will see eventually.

Mastering the Craft III

I've been more experimental lately, trying to come up with new things to make, just to keep cooking exciting. First off, buffalo wings.

I found a "copy-cat" recipe for a restaurant boneless buffalo wing, and it was amazingly simple. Some seasoned flour, some eggs and a bunch of frying oil, and I was ready for some good American wings. I had to use some bottled buffalo sauce from an import store, and it was way too spicy for a standard buffalo wing. I liked it, it was just not a regular level of heat. I've never deep-fried chicken before, though this was a picture of simplicity. The crust stayed on the chicken (unlike another buffalo recipe that used a pan-frying method) and the chicken was perfectly cooked. I made some of them honey-bbq'd flavor, but I didn't take the time to make sure the sauce was right and there just wasn't enough honey. I'll try that another time perhaps.

Last week I made hummus. I managed to get my hands on both chickpeas and tahini, so everything else was just for fun. I decided to make it roasted red pepper flavored. I don't have a food processor, I have a mini chopper. This makes pureed things like hummus hard to concoct. I did manage to roast the pepper and get the beans ground up. It was more of a paste than a sauce like consistency, but that is the fault of the underpowered grinder, I won't ever be able to make perfect hummus without spending money on a device I will abandon next year. I don't like to waste money. I did however put way too much garlic in it, the first day it had a burn that has since subsided. Maybe just one or two cloves instead of four or five next time.

I might try and make rice crispies today or after Andrea leaves. Either way it will be done, hopefully with good results. I did manage to find jalapenos as a store last week as well, salsa is not far on the calendar either.

I cannot wait to try this

Secret That Kelloggs Doesn't Want You to Know - video powered by Metacafe

You can't get real rice krispies here, and I've been dying to try and figure out a way to make some gooey marshmallow treats. I'll probably experiment while andrea is at home.

I have a lot more stuff to post about, but I'll do that once andrea leaves, there's too much to do in between now and then.

So I figured it out...

I miss the people. Yes, I know; me, missing people. Who would've thought. I miss cooking for not only Andrea, but our friends as well. Cooking used to be an event, we'd usually invite 2-4 people over to share the meal and have a good time. Can't do that in a city where you don't know anyone. What does this mean? Well it doesn't mean I'm going to start having kids so I have more people to feed. I just need to cook with others more. Too bad everyone we know will be gone by August. I guess I'll just have to wait until I move back. Having the ability to cook what I want would help too.

I found a new soda, "Ice Cream Soda." Really its blue popsicle (Japanese version) with ice cream flavor. It's positively delicious. Tastes just like the blue popsicles filled with vanilla ice cream. What a coincidence.

I'm making meatball subs for Lyndsi's visit this weekend. Killer tomato sauce as usual. A little spicier this time, just the way I like it.~

Inspiration

I seem to be lacking drive in the kitchen lately. I have food I can cook, but it is the same, tired recipes that I make at least once in a two week period. I don't know where to turn. I can't bake. Grilling is difficult at best. There are only so many ways to stirfry vegetables and meat. I've wandered through the list of websites I know, looking for new recipes. I seem to be lacking inspiration. This unfortunately leads me to fast food, since I can't bring myself to cook.

Part of the problem is the produce available. I love peppers, but they're so expensive I can't afford to use them often. On top of that, most recognizable vegetables from a US grocery store just aren't sold in Japan. Many spices also aren't available where we live. It can be frustrating at times. I can't make any variety of salads because they would cost as much as $10 per person, unless I want to use cabbage instead of lettuce. I don't. Add to the fact that things like soups are so far out of season, given that it is so hot and humid, I struggle to find summer ready recipes.

Gyros, Tacos, Burgers, Italian Chicken, Pizza, Meatball subs, Spagetti. Those are the recipes that are in my current cycle. If only I could find something new to make.

Chocolate Ice

Fran is the main competitor of Pocky, which is much better known. Anyways, Fran has a new flavor out, Ice Berry. I was afraid I was about to eat mentholated chocolate, but there is none to be had. It tastes like a great berries and chocolate concoction, though the "Ice" part perplexes me. It's summer, there's no menthol (which would seem somewhat cooling if you ate it) and it doesn't resemble anything icy. Oh well, it tastes fantastic and in the end, that is all that matters.

Drinks of the month

Lately there's been a variety of new drinks released in Japan, I've managed to try a couple.

Mountain Dew Max, never officially marketed in Japan, they finally have a nationwide product. It tastes reasonably close to regular 'Dew, with one odd change. It's bright green. It looks like lime jello. I remember it being yellow in America.

Pepsi Blue Hawaii, is supposed to taste like pineapple and lemon. Blue hawaii-type flavors should be awesome from my experience, so I had high hopes. Unfortunately, it tastes like a sour alcoholic drink. And it was a little short on the blue flavor.

I mentioned a while ago about the fizzy orange drink, well they've come out with a new flavor, grape. They picture the red and green grapes on the can, but it's heavy on the green flavor. A pity really, because I liked the orange one. There's just too much green grape.

Sprite Zero, this isn't a new flavor, but it's new to Japan. They don't sell regular sprite at anything except vending machines. This tastes exactly the same as is does in the US.

Chocolate and what?

Salt. Yeah, chocolate and salt. Not dissolved or just flavored, big flakes of it, like crushed up nuts or pieces of candy canes. This is the latest chocolate in the store right now. Salt+Choco. It's not a terrible mix, just a little strange when you first think about it. Andrea described it as being like chocolate-covered pretzels, without the chocolate. It was worth trying, but I'll stick to regular chocolate if I'm having a craving.

Back in the saddle, a day in Shinjuku

Sorry for the unscheduled break. Things happen. Life goes on.

I went to Tokyo last weekend, and beyond the drinking and wandering through Shinjuku, I actually had some good food. We ate lunch at a little indian restaurant. I use the term indian loosely. It had curry and naan(indian flat bread), but the menu was clearly geared towards Japanese tastes. Beyond that, it was pretty good. My chicken curry was not as spicy as I like, but I know from experience that different regions have different recipes. Not all curry has to be spicy. The naan was also delicious. The plain one is similar to greek-styled american flat bread, but the garlic one was fantastic. Bread covered in roasted garlic, how can you go wrong? They also brought it out with a massive plate of saffron-looking rice. I say "looking" because there wasn't much taste, though I could tell what they were trying to achieve.

For dinner we went to an izakaya(essentially a place to get beer and food for groups of people). This one charged $40 per person, but it was all you can drink for 2 hours, in addition to the multi-course meal(that is still a little high, but everything else that could hold our 15 person group was booked). We started with a "salad," which turned out to be just pieces of cabbage. That is not salad where I come from. They did eventually bring out a real salad, though it was random shredded vegetables that looked more like the left over garbage than a meal course. I chose not to partake. Next we received fried shrimp. Everyone knows by aversion to seafood, and again, I left my helping to someone else.

Then came the main courses. Some pan fried pork slices were served, and similar to every piece of meat in Japan, were about half fat. This is really annoying to this American man who enjoyed his meats lean and skinless. I still have a hard time with it. Right after the pork, they brought out some barbecued chicken. This is a fairly common thing in Japan, and it is a little sweeter and less spicy than what most people would think of bbq'd chicken in the US.

A large metal bowl filled with various vegetables and raw meat was placed on top of the gas stoves on the tables(I knew they had those there for a reason). Underneath all the fixings there must have been some spices and liquid, because almost immediately a yellow liquid began bubbling up. It was in fact, curry soup, with cabbage, onions and pork. It was very good, a little spicy without being too hot. For some reason after all of us had eaten most of the soup, they brought out noodles for it. They were soba noodles, and went well with the rest of the soup, even if most of it was gone.

They of course, had drinks. Sadly, at these types of restaurants, they only give you the cheap sake/beer/whiskey. Andrea can usually get various sours, but they don't have a wide range of drinks. With that, I'll end this story. You don't want to hear about the horrors of cheap izakaya alcohol.

More New Foods

Wandering through Ministop yesterday I came across a delighteful new Hi-chew, kiwi! They were slightly sour, wrapped in gold foil. They were delicious. Less delicious and higher on the uniqueness scale, gummy filled chocolates. Interesting would be the word to use. They were berry flavored, blueberries and strawberries were on the packaging. They were not bad, but it can be a little strange if you are unsure what to expect.

Second experience of the week was making my own italian salad dressing. No, I haven't started eating salads every day. That simple dressing can be used on such a wide variety of foods, and Japan apparently does not know how to make it properly. All the one's I've had taste like corn syrup and vinegar. I make a dry mix based off a recipe on the internet, then mixed it up with some olive oil and some vinegar. Today it will cover some grilled chicken, tomorrow who knows?

The final food experience of the week, dinner at a teacher's house. Andrea and I were invited to dinner at an english teacher's house way back in March. Yesterday we followed through on that invitation. Her mother made most of the food, they also bought some pizzas. With mayonaise...and corn. Needless to say it wasn't the greatest pizza experience, but at least now I can say that I've had it. They made cheesecake, bbq'd chicken, fried rice vegetable concoction, spring rolls, pork and potato dish, as well has homemade ume shochu (plum sake). It was all very delicious, except for the rice, which I did not try. It was fun to sit around and eat delicious food and hear all their stories from trips to the US. Would definitely do it again, maybe even bring some of my own food next time to share.

Magical Leftovers

Scrounging through the kitchen trying to find something to eat for lunch, I realized that all I had was old taco meat and rice. I did what any self respecting person does. Mixed it all together added some cheese and salsa. Terrific. Leftovers might be a fearful word for some people, but for me it has become part of daily life. I suppose I could figure out how to adjust recipes so that I only made enough for two servings. Problem is, its almost as cheap to cook for two as it is for 4. If I can add two meals to a dish and eat lunch for 50 cents, easy way to save money. Even cheap noodle cups are a dollar a piece(plus most of them have shrimp >.>).

Moral of the story, don't be afraid of leftovers. They're cheap, you already paid for the first meal, you don't have to pay anything extra for the following ones. They're easy, microwave anyone? Finally, they let you try new combinations. Sure taco bell has had rice bowls, but have I ever really felt like paying for one? No. Good, easy, cheap food is always hard to beat.

New season of foods

Well a new "season" has started. We're heavy with milk and dark chocolates, as well as some stranger varieties. I'm speaking of cheesecake flavored chocolates. They are not terrible, but they take you back when you first bite into them. Toppo has a new "Ghana" milk chocolate version. Basically it's harder milk chocolate and they're a lot bigger than the normal sized Toppo. Green tea is still a popular flavoring. Blueberry has made a brief comeback as well.

I had the strangest flavor of Ramune soda last week, green tea. It basically is ramune with green tea poured in. Not particularly delicious. Andrea couldn't even deal with the one sip she had. I managed to finish it, but I won't be trying that again.

Mastering the Craft II

Part two of my riveting tale of my climb to cooking glory!

I've been working on making some kind of cheese sauce since I got here. I've used a basic version to make mac and cheese, and the white sauce base for making a hamburger helper type dish. Well today I decided to make philly cheesesteaks. Cheesesteaks have two important ingredients. Steak and cheese. Everything else is just a condiment. Steak? Half off again from the grocery store, big check.

Cheese on the other hand is a harder thing to come by. No processed american cheese in Fuji. No good cheddar either. I had to use some cheese that makes Kroger cheese look gourmet. White sauce, it turns out, is easy to make with just milk and flour. Plus, by leaving out the butter, it's a little bit better for you. Win win. Adding 120 grams of crappy cheese to white sauce doesn't actually turn out a very strong cheese-flavored sauce, but it was all I could find. It was edible, and tasted vaguely like cheese. I sure miss good 5 year cheddar though.

After the delicious cheesesteaks, I decided to make some dip out of what was left. Add a little salsa, you've got nachos. 4 dollar corn chips never tasted so good.

A taste of the Mediterranian

I bought this meat last week. It was beef. On clearance. I thought it was about 1/4 inch thick slices (they sell all kinds of presliced beef and pork here, since they don't do roasting or grilling very often, all pan frying or boiling). It was on its last day yesterday, so I had to do something.

I remembered my mother used to make gyros out of random meat she had, so that's what I decided to do. I wasn't really sure how to make them, and there are a bunch of different styles. I settled on winging it, just making up my own seasoning as I went. I knew that there was rosemary and oregano, that's the base of every gyro I've had. Garlic is a must in greek food, so I added powder and freezedried varieties. I've had a few types that were heavy on the sage, so tossed in a heavy sprinkle of that. Cumin adds a nice flover to them as well, so in it went. I read somewhere to add basil, but the flavor of basil is far too "sweet" for something like this, so I ignored that. I remember tasting a gyro at a greek diner, and it was pundgent, sour/bitter almost. I looked around some more, and found that vinegar is a standard ingredient in traditional greek cooking. And I had my gyros.

They don't sell pitabread where I live, but one store has bread that vaguely resembles hot dog buns. That would suffice for my first attempt. I should've added real garlic, and some sliced onions, but I was feeling rather lazy, and I was trying to get it cooked in a hurry. Next time. It turned out really good. It needed the onions, but Andrea liked it fine for her first try of this fantastic dish. She lived in Lawrence, which has an almost famous greek restaurant, and she never had a gyro, go figure.

Either way it was a success. I just need a coffee grinder to get the rosemary less chunky next time, and to measure my spices so I can write it down and make it again and again. We can't have it all the time, since the meat is expensive ($8-10 per lb) but if its on clearance I can certainly find a use for it. Next time I'm making phily cheesesteaks out of it though.
~

Mastering the Craft I

I'm going to call this series, "Mastering the Craft." It will follow my journey of perfecting my cooking skills. Everyone knows that I'm no amateur in the kitchen. I would love to believe that I'm above average, but I know that some days I'm worse than others. I'm always learning. I follow several food blogs (slashfood is my favorite ^_^) and am constantly looking for new recipes to try (even if I have to hold the recipes until I get a real oven).

Today I was making my infamous meatball subs. I've never used a written recipe, just whatever feels right. Every time I make the sauce a little bit different, because I've never been able to get a really good tomato sauce for pasta/everything else. Today I managed to get it perfect. Now I just have to figure out what I did so I can do it over and over again.

I fell in love with an organic tomato basil sauce that I bought at a regular grocery store. It was the perfect blend of tomato and spices, albeit short on the spiciness department. I haven't really been able to recreate it in a way that I enjoyed, until today. Lots of oregano and basil. A teaspoon of garlic powder, a large pinch of sage and a small one of crushed red pepper. 1 can of diced tomatoes, 1 small onion, 2 large cloves of garlic, 1 jar of tomato sauce (I think that would be equal to 1.5 cans of sauce in the US). 1/2 teaspoon of pepper and a pinch of salt. The secret? 1.5 teaspoons of sugar. I was amazed at the difference.

I cooked the onions and garlic in some olive oil with a little salt an pepper, then added just the diced tomatoes and all the seasonings. Cooked until the liquid was gone and it was basically a thin paste. Turn off the burner and let it cool. Toss it in a food processor and grind it a few times so the onions, garlic and tomatoes are just chopped up a little bit more. Toss it back in the pan, add the sauce and the sugar. I usually end up adding a little bit of water to rinse out the jar of sauce, maybe 1/2 cup tops. Cook it to get rid of the excess water, serve over anything.

I'm not a master, but I'm getting there slowly. It's fun to experiment and hopefully you'll get to see a lot more of these entries as I try more and more new things.

7 dozen cookies in a toaster oven

That right. 6 at a time. 8 minutes per batch. I spent the better half of tuesday making these cookies for Andrea's english club at school. They were having a demonstration to gain more members. They did cookie decorating and egg painting.

I had the task of making the cookies and the frosting. I've never baked cookies in a toaster oven. I've never thought it would be a good idea. Toaster ovens are uneven, and finicky devices. they're best for toast and pizza. Even more so when they are giant easy-bake-ovens(the heating element is essentially a special light bulb, the same thing is used in electric heaters here). I've been dreading the day when I would finally have to give in to Andrea's requests to make some cookies (she's been wanting peanut blossoms, but hershey kisses are 3x as much here). So in an act of kindness, I acquired the ingredients and the tools required for such a task. I settled on the standard sugar cookie.

I used the recipe found here. It was fairly simple, but looked massive for what I needed and wanted to make, so I halved the recipe. The other fantastic part about living here, and having US measuring devices, is converting certain measurements. Butter here doesn't come in 1/2 cup sticks, solid blocks or 8 gram pieces. So I had to convert the weight of the butter to grams, but for some reason that didn't seem to match the metric measurements the website offered. I think I went with my measurement. I made the cookies probably 1/2 the size that they expect you to, since with a half sized recipe, I ended up with more cookies than the recipe said I would get for a full batch.

Cooking them was actually much easier than I thought it would be. 4.5 minutes at 200C was enough to slightly brown the edges and cook them to a nice soft consistency. I used "cake paper" from the baking section of the 100 yen store. I was hoping it was parchment paper, but it was more like wax paper. Either way it worked fine, as I didn't have to work about cookies sticking to the pans. I had to let the cookies cool on the paper, then peel it off and cool them a little bit more.

The icing came from the same site, here. I don't think I mixed it long enough because it was still pretty grainy. I added a lot more milk to thin it out as well, hoping that would help. It didn't. Either way it came out fine, and was ok enough to use for japanese highschoolers who had never iced sugar cookies before. When I went to add the food coloring I bought for the icing I was stunned. It was powder. Colored powder instead of drops. I know they have that kind of thing in the US, as well as high concentration gels, but I was still surprised. It even came with a tiny spoon. It mixed fine and created some nice pastel colors for decorating. For some strange reason they don't sell the 3 primary colors; blue, yellow, and red. Everyone does this in the US because you can mix the food coloring to make ever color in the rainbow. Not in Japan. Here they have green instead of blue. Unfortunately, they're the same word here as well. So people would look at you funny if you didn't want green and wanted blue. Oh well.

In the end it was a good experience to have. I will always cherish my oven when I get home, nothing beats cooking 20 cookies at once.

On a side note, one of Andrea's teachers invited us over for dinner sometime in May. I'm excited and scared all at once. Homemade food is usually far better than store food, but I will be unable to refuse a dish because of my fear of seafood. We'll see how it goes.

Spicy noodles

Ate lunch in the Lusca building in Hiratsuka on saturday. Andrea and Travis had pizza, I decided to branch out. I had a (more than likely) korean inspired spicy garlic noodle soup. Hot as hell. My eyes were watering and my nose was running. It was delicious. I also had a melon soda float. Melon soda, ice, ice cream. Yes, ice. For some strange reason they leave it in their floats at that shop. Maybe it's a japan thing, I'm guessing it is, but I haven't had a float anywhere else yet.

We also went to the import shop. Who knew doritos tortilla chips were worth 4.50. Me, because corn chips don't really exist here. Unless you want them to taste like corn. Oh and look out families, we found some of those chips and they will be on their way. $10 for kraft parmesean cheese. $8 for johnsonville smoked brats. 2.50 for a can of cream of chicken soup. Its all very brutal. It's a good thing we don't live near those stores (there isn't one for at least a 45 minute train ride).

Pizza spring rolls failed, but I know why. Too much beef, no pepperoni. As far as I can tell pepperoni isn't in stores here, so it is unlikely that I can remedy the situation. Also the sauce tends to leak out into the frying oil and makes it unusable for any other frying. Yes I save my cooking oil, it has more than one use you wasteful people!

Japanese bacon hasx failed me again, and for the last time. It doesn't cook right, it just burns. There's no smokey flavor or aroma. It is just plain bad. So for reference to bacon lovers everywhere, don't come to Japan, you will be without for the period of your stay. Unless you stay at the sheraton, they have bacon with their breakfast.

Banana and green tea are the flavors of the season. Pocky has banana. Fran has both. There is green tea caramel corn and a variety of cookies. I hope this phase passes quickly, I despise both flavors.

Disney and food

Disney in the US is a variety of foods, from the lowest forms of burgers and fries, to the highest end gourmet dinners. Tokyo Disney is no different. There are a variety of reservation only places to get a fabulous dinner with a bit of the "magic" they advertise so heavily. They also happen to have burgers and fries. Though admittedly, they have fish burgers mixed in there.

This particular park had a vast array of flavored snacks. Chocolate, curry, soda(known as white soda or ramune), honey and caramel flavor for popcorn (you could even buy a little souvenir tub for it, honey was pooh themed honey pot). For some odd reason, this Disney had a facination with churros. Honey-lemon and classic cinnamon sugar were the flavors of choice, and the carts were everwhere. I discovered the greatest of the snacks, pizza spring rolls. They are about 8 inches long and filled with pizza goodness. They should start serving those at Disney in the US. They also had regular spring rolls for those not inclined to eat something non-asian, though they were also giant.

There was a great middle ground restaurant (though by middle ground I mean $25 a person) that was one of two "buffetterias." Themed like Alice in Wonderland, they offered freshly made entrees, salads and desserts at relatively reasonable prices. It turned out that everything you picked up had its own cost. I assumed that the rice came with my flank steak entree, which in reality, cost me $3. Either way it was a good, satisfying meal in a fun, whimsical building. I would've gone again, but I would've left the rice and the drinks on the counter. Andrea had the heartshaped feast.

We decide to skip out on the expensive dinner options, seeing as we had already spent too much getting into the park and eating lunch, and opted for burgers. Not great, but it was better than the crappy burgers you might get off of a theme park in the US. These ones actually had vegetables on them too.

People tell you to go to Disney World not just for the fun, but for the food now as well. The same can be said for Tokyo Disney. While it may not all be the best foods, or the least expensive, there is a wide variety that will be able to tickle almost anyone's tastes. I certainly found a few foods that made the long lines worth it, and would gladly try another pizza springroll or soda popcorn.

Nihonshu in the morning.

Ah yes, sake, my good friend. Known specifically as Nihonshu, I have developed a very strong taste for the best known alcohol of Japan (the other would be Midori, made by the Japanese-drink-making powerhouse, Suntory). It can vary from the cheap, burning taste of one-cup from the "conbini" (convenience store) to the sweet ume(oomae, plum) infused. We went to a sake-festival yesterday morning, with all the free sake you could drink. The whole goal of the festival is probably to get people to buy the drink direct from the distiller, but it really only accomplishes getting a few thousand people drunk at 11am. Though about 1/2 of the people there do buy something, so it probably does bring in some money. You get a as many free tasting cups as you want, and can go around to the booths that will give you a sample from about 20-30 different varieties.

I had about 8 different kinds. 1 of them tasted like the cheap ones, lots of burn, not much flavor. There was another one that tasted like good sake, but watered down or washed out. It had very mild flavor. There was the ume wine, which was far too sweet for me. If anyone had the Beringer from our wedding, this wine was far sweeter than that. One taste was more than enough. The ume sake was much better, good balance of sake flavor and sweetness. Would probably be good if you wanted to make an ume flavored japanese-martini. There was one that tasted like a good middle road, strong flavor without the burn. The best one was one that someone bought, and it was sweet, sour, salty and delicious. Probably the best nihonshu I've ever had.

Andrea bought, what I thought was kimchi pizza, some kind of seafood bread thing. I was fine for the first few bites until I saw the suckers from the octopus legs. That was it for me. The yakitori there was fantastic though, if only because my other option was octopus.

Making lumpia for dinner tonight, with homemade sweet and sour sauce. Hopefully it will be close to the one's Gina's mom used to make for us. We'll see what happens.

Another week

Another series of uninspiring foods. I've been pouring over recipes to make, but its just so hard. 90% of recipes on the internet require either A) ingredients that I don't have ready access to, or B) an oven. This leave me wandering the grocery store trying to think of a new flavor to stirfry chicken (which andrea won't eat the vegetables) or a new way to flavor ground borf(beef pork combo that is the only ground meat you can buy). Frustration is an american cook in a japanese kitchen.

Thankfully snacks are plentiful here; blueberry pocky, salty vanilla toppo, and orange ramune candy. Fran has come out with bananna and matcha(green tea) "au lait" flavors this month. I won't be trying either because they both sound aweful. The store had imported cookies today. A variety of shortbreads and sugar cookies. I bought shortbread with belgium chocolate. I knew they were imported when its said "Vegetarian safe" on the side. Its nearly impossible to be a vegitarian in japan simply because there are no companies that make v-friendly foods.

I'll probably hover over the food sites for a few more hours today, unless I get work to do. Maybe I'll find something I can make, maybe it will even taste good!

Boy do they love butter...

Butter flavored snacks are amazingly popular here. Even with the fact that butter is a regional export of Hokkaido and is not close to cheap. Butter flavored chips, crackers, various salty snacks. Strange obsession, but not disgusting. The chips taste like baked potatoes and there's a very specific butter bread snack that's quite good, they're sort of like giant croutons. Still there aren't very many butter flavored things in the US.

I managed to make lasagna this week. In a toaster oven and without riccota cheese. I put too many layers in so it really didn't taste perfect, though next time will be better. I won't be able to make it all the time though; $6 for a box of noodles, $4 for cottage cheese, $4 for the parmesean(just the amount I need, not the giant container most people think of), and $4 for the sauce ingredients. The noodles will last me for another batch, but $15 for two servings of homemade lasagna? Not my idea of cheap.

We ate a big dinner at a friend's apartment, he made all kinds of mexican food. He was a cook before he came to Japan and he like to make a big meal and share it with people once or twice a year. The guacamole he made was so awesome, and I don't even like the stuff. He made enchiladas and nachos, all with grilled meat. Pinwheels made with real cream cheese. Best mexican food I've had in years.

Peach Season

Normally I wouldn't associate peaches with february and march, but in Japan, fruits know no seasons. Strawberries are in plentiful supply right now, following the great strawberry flavored foods season. Now comes the onslaught of peach chocolates and cookies. I can't say I'm thrilled. Strawberry is one thing, it goes great with chocolate or other sweets. Peach is a flavor that is really hit or miss for me, often tasting like flavored plastic. I might find out how these new snacks taste, I might skip it. I'm looking forward to what summer has, since we only caught the tail end of it last year.

I made fajita style chicken and peppers yesterday. Andrea was finally starting to feel better so it was time to try something experimental. Word of warning, when soaking chicken in a marinade, proteins seem to leech into the liquid, which will coagulate once it heats up, making sludge instead of sauce. I used the taco seasoning liquid that I soaked the chicken in to make a sauce, and it didn't work well. In the end it tasted fine, but the sauce left something to be desired. The peppers were good though, best 6 dollars for 2 peppers ever. I remember bell peppers being 50 cents. Oh well. Served it all over rice for a relatively balanced meal. Low in fat high in protein. Going to try and make lasagna next week, in a toaster oven. We'll see how that goes.

Hopefully this one will stick.

I'm going to make an effort to post once or twice a week, just so people know what they do for sustenance here. I'll be posting recipes for different foods that are easily made without the vast array of foods available at an American grocery store. It'll be fun, I promise.