Oden for Breakfast

We received some おでん (Oden) from Hide's aunt last night. So I decided to make it for breakfast today. This set came with some soup stock,to be diluted with water, and the fish cakes and konnyaku. Konnyaku is a wierd, chewy substancethat translates to devil's tongue jelly. So we'll refer to it as the Japanese word.  To start with, it says to .,, the konbu (昆布) for at least 15 minutes to get rid of the salt. It also mentions you can add boiled egg or radish, so I boiled some eggs. Then I add the soup and three cups of water to a pot and simmered the konnyaku, eggs, and konbu. While they were cooking, I blanched the fish cakes for a few seconds to take away the oil.  After the eggs, konnyaku, and konbu had simmered for 10 minutes,I added the fish cakes and let everything simmer on low heat for ten more minutes. Then we enjoyed a nice, hot, breakfast.

Sushi Party

Yay! We had sushi for dinner last night. Sushi is 寿司 in Japanese characters. But we actually had 手巻き寿司. 手 means hand. And 巻き means roll. So hand roll sushi.  We take dried seaweed (のり or nori) and we add rice (ご飯 or gohan), then our favorite fish, etc. It was so yummy!  Can you tell what we ate? We had hotate - ホタテ, mentaiko - 明太子, tamago - 玉子, maguro - 鮪, salmon - サーモン, tako - タコ, kani - かに, and natto - 納豆.  The green leaves are しそ or shizo leaves. Hide's aunt made lots of gyoza for us again too! どれが一番食べたいですか？(Dore ga ichiban tabetai desuka?) Which one do you want to eat the most?

What's for Dinner?

Tonight's dinner was gyu-don (牛丼)or beef bowl with mushrooms (しめじ) and green onion.  I also steamed some spinach (ほれんそう) with vinegar and I had some lightly pickled cucumber on the side (浅漬け).  Beef bowl is often eaten with pickled ginger that is usually red (紅生姜).  Another yummy meal!

 

The Winner of the Candy Giveaway!

...and the winner is Alexia Le.  Congratulations!!!  Thanks for the entering the giveaway, everyone.  I will be sending the goodies soon. 
Here was her comment and some others :)  >>>

Good luck in the next giveaway and if you missed the video, please check it out here: 

To Hell with the Natural Look... Coloured Mascara is Back!

Hi, Everyone!

Princesses and Puppies are what I felt when I first heard of Bourjois' coloured mascara...  okay, not quite, but you get the gist.  The ultimate was purple, of course, and if I got that...I might as well get the electric blue.  Turquoise was just thrown in cuz I wanted the other two and was worried I would regret not buying the third...even though I think it's totally a summer colour.  Anyways, if I died tomorrow, I would want to be wearing purple mascara,  of course.  To hell with the natural look (hopefully I will not be headed there).

I have proclaimed coloured mascara is on the comeback.  Be looking forward to more of it this fall and winter, then spring and eventually, summer.  Do you intend to jump on the band wagon?  If so, which colour would you choose to wear?

Sorry I couldn't take a clearer picture.  Hope my eye isn't too scary!

Update:  The turquoise/mint mascara tends to lose it's colour throughout the day.  My lashes stayed in place, but after a few hours, they just looked dark, not minty.  I had to reapply twice.  I will try this again using a base coat, perhaps the colour will pop/last longer.  The purple and blue are actually very vivid and lasted very nicely.  They are my new favourites!

My Fav Fall Meal!

As the days begin to get cooler and shorter, I tend to gravitate towards warm soup-like meals. Today was our first nabe of the fall/winter!

Nabe is basically a hotpot with soup, vegetables, and possibly meat or fish. We decided to enjoy the fruits of fall, in this case mushrooms. I included 舞茸 (Maitake)、椎茸 (Shiitake)、しめじ (Shimeji)　and エリンギ (Eringi) mushrooms.　The only other vegetables were 水菜 (Mizuna), carrot, and green onion. I used my cutters to cut out carrot leaves and some bears. We love chicken meatballs. Sometimes I make them at home, but I picked them up from the store. There are a lot of ready-made soup packs available now and it really helps with the cooking/prep time.

After done eating, we add rice to the leftover soup and enjoy 雑炊 (Zousui). A yummy dinner had by Hide and I. What food do you enjoy when the weather starts to get cooler?

きのこ鍋用スープ　-　Soup for Mushroom Nabe  

生つくね　-　Raw Chicken Meatballs

３割引　-　30% Off (Yay!)

 

Mochi Spaghetti

Did you know that like most other countries, Japanese love spaghetti?  It's true.  They love fresh spaghetti and, in fact, tend to use the word mochi when describing it's delicious texture.  Mochi means soft and chewy and can be applied to not only rice cakes,  but crackers, and any type of food, including pasta.
So on Monday, Hideki surprised me when calling me while I was in Yokohama and asking me to go to lunch.  Yay!  Lunch date!  We went to もちスパ　(Mochi Spa - short for Spaghetti).  It was oh so delicious! Went to heaven and heard the angels talk of it's deliciousness also.  If you ever get the chance, please visit here too!  It's to die for!

Me - In Front of もちスパ

 Hide's Order - Included Egg, Bacon, and Parmsan Cheese

My Order - Included Toasted Potato Salad and Creamy Tomato Sauce

Both were scrumptious.  Hide choose the pasta made with tomato and I went with the regular kind, since my sauce was tomato.  We tried each other's dishes, because it's like totally the date thing to do (plus the way to live at home) and it was a lot of pasta for myself, and everything including the sauce was gone.  The noodles themselves were as every bit mochiri as promised.  すごく美味しかったです。　(SugokuOishikattadesu - It was really yummy!)    

Afterwards we went for coffee.  All the places were pretty full, so went ended up going to:

Hideki asked me what this meant...I explained how pour and over worked...and wasn't totally sure you should say pour over...instead of pour into.  Oh well, it was unique.  

 We both got caramel lattes.  It came to 1050...which is more than Starbucks!  Only Starbucks was pretty full when we went there before coming here.  But the lattes were good and the atmosphere, as well as furniture, was very nice.

All said and done, a great lunch date with my fav guy!  Till next time!  Mata ne!