Friday, May 15, 2009

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Fried Chingensai (Pok choy) & poak.
Adding starch to chicken soup which makes it melty.

I like sliced poak back ribs so much.
It adds good broth, also soft and tasty.

However, I added too much salt a bit this time.

I do check the taste but always feel short on the taste so add seasoning.
Then it makes dish strong.

I don't know why but I repeat this mistake.
I don't learn.

It's wonder.

Hope I can learn it as soon as possible because it's obviousely bad for health!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

UTSUWA - 器

As I mentioned before, I bought dishes recently and it was the first time to buy since I started to live by myself.
Until I bought dishes I used dishes and plates which I got as a wedding party gift or I used when I lived in Kyoto for University. However, as I cook I care more and more about how it look like and want more variation of dish. Specially, I wanted rice bowl because I used wooden soup bowl instead.




This rice bowl was made by Mr.Tsuneo Narui which I found at shop named QUICO in Omotesando.
It seemed better to call it Donburi not a rice bowl, but liked its thickness for some reason then bought 2 of them. All products were look same but different in size or shape so I chose most different 2.


Also I bought a bowl for tea ceremony.
I thought it might be impolite to use this for rice as daily meal but it was too nice to give up and I couldn't stop buying.




I use this tea bowl not only for rice but boiled food, fruit yogurt or salad.

These bowls gain my appetite even if I don't cook tasty. ;-P

Monday, May 11, 2009

Daikon & Chicken

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I haven't cooked very much when I lived with my parents.
However, "Mom's taste" is in my blood and I cook what I ate in my home.
It seems to happen automatically.

Daikon (Japanese radish) and chicken is the best possible combination.

Sugar, soy sourse, sake, fish soup and sometimes Mirin (sweet cooking rice wine).
I learned that these are also the best possible combination when I started to live by myself and cook.

Nikujaga, Buri daikon, Kinpira.
It can useful for many receip, and the taste will be different if I change each portion.


Anyway, it seems I like to flavovre bit sweeter.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Sweets


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Just boiled apple and sweet potato with little water and sugar.
Oh, and lemon juice.

I thought I failed to cook this but actually it taste good. Maybe it would be good with vanilla icecream.


My problem these days is I eat too much.

I try not to buy junk food or snacks for my health and cook by myself as much as possible.
However, I found fun in cooking and it doesn't annoy me anymore.
I can cook if I want to eat even it is middle of night....

Good news is I've already had yearly health check 2 weeks ago.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Wooden plate


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
I used wooden plate which my friend gave me.
It's good to put several meals in small portion.
Imaging how the plate would change as it's used is also fun!



友人がくれた木のお皿を使ってみた。
いろんな種類を少しずつ乗せるのにちょうど良い感じ。
使い込んだらどんな風に変わっていくのかも楽しみ!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Arrange on dish


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6

My mother always complained to my arrangement on dish.

" Why did you choose this plate for this side dish !?"
" It doesn't look nice."


But I didn't care because I didn't chose plate for coordinate with food.
I chose plate just for size of food and access to take it out from cupboard.




However since I moved out my home and lived by myself, I have kept cooking .
As I used to cooking, I started caring about its appearance.


Visual effect was bigger than I have thought.
Now I understood what my Mom said.


New bowl and plate makes food look nice.
Red pickles improves appetite.



My next task is to develop a sense because I felt green plate is not suit this meal.
Even more, I'm wondering why I bought this plate....


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
いつも母に言われていたことがある。

「なんでこのお皿選ぶの!?」
「おいしそうに見えないでしょ」


料理に合わせたサイズと食器棚からの取り出しやすさが重要であり、見た目なんかどうでも良かったので、そんなことを言われても一向に気にしていませんでした。


が、しかし。実家を出て一人暮らしを始めてから料理を続けているんだけど、慣れるに従って見た目も気になるようになってきた。


思っていた以上に見た目はおいしさに影響する。
母正解。


新しく買ったお皿とお椀は料理をおいしそうに見せるし、赤い漬物は食欲をわかせる。



しかしもうちょっとセンスを磨かないとダメだね。
みどりのお皿はなんとなく合ってない気がするし、その前に、なんでこのお皿を買ったんだろうという疑問が生じてきた・・・。

Monday, April 20, 2009

Fish and dish !!


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6

You don't know how I was happy when I prepared this meal.
There are 2 point I was excited.


1) I got fish grille and this aji no himono, dried aji fish, is the first cook with this grille. So gooood.


2) I bought bowls and plates.
if you see my previous photos, you can see which is the new comer.

This photo shows only 2 new dishes, but I bought another bowl and got wooden plates from my friend.


The bowl is bit too big for rice, but I'm satisfied with both dish and fish grille.


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パッと見ふつうのメニューですが、私にとってはかなりうきうきな夕食でした。

1) 魚焼きグリルをゲット。このアジの干物が初調理。
  サイコー。

2) お椀と小皿を購入しました。
  過去の写真を見ればどれが新しく買ったやつかは一目瞭然です。

 これ以外にも、もうひとつお椀を買って、友人から木のお皿ももらいました。



お椀がご飯茶碗にしては大きすぎなことを除けば、かなり満足。




仕事の英訳もこんな調子だから伝達ミスが多いです。
ごめんなさい。

Fruit salada


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6

Dose it seem nice, eh?
Just cut apple and banana, put some sour cream and blueberry souse but looks good.

I made blueberry souse which my friend taught me the recipe.

1) Put 1 bag of frozen blueberry, 1 or 2 spoon of sugar and lemon juice into pan.

2) boil until it become tasty :-)

That's it!

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何を書きたかったというと・・・


これ、おいしそじゃない?
りんごとバナナをカットして、ブルーベリーソースとサワークリームをトッピングしただけでこんなに良い感じ。


ブルーベリーソースは友達に作り方を教えてもらいました。

1) 冷凍のブルーベリー1袋、砂糖をスプーンに1~2杯、レモン汁少々を鍋に入れる
2) おいしくなるまで煮るのみ

簡単プー。です。




日本語が表現豊かな言語なのか、私の英語力が乏しすぎるのか。
言わずまでもなく後者ですが・・・。

絵文字でごまかしている時点でもうアウトだな。

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Pancake


DSC03958
Originally uploaded by Ocha6
I like pancake.
(We call it Hotcake in Japan).

This hot cake is mixed with apple.
I learned this receip in Canada.
My homestay mother sometimes cooked it for breakfast.

Ah, I wanna eat it now, again...

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

End of March


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6


It is end of month today and I had to leave my office just on time not to add any more over time for this month.
I'm not good at doing job. I mean I cannot finish my jobs efficiently.
For example, if I do one task and notice something different, I tend to do it and forget previous task.
Also I'm very careless and it makes me busy to recover what I do wrong.
So I chronically work over time.

Anyway, today I got home early and had 2 extra hours than usual.

Do you know what I did?



I did laundry.
I did cleaned bathroom.
I didn't cook for dinner but warmed up left over.

And, I drunk 3 glass of alcohol.
Happy happy....

Photo is my favorit beer at this time, Silk EBIS.
The form is realy soft and taste is very clear.
I recommend this, totally!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Uguisu ball


This cracker is well known in Kansai area in Japan.
My company has many Kansai people and one of them taught me about this snack and gave me copy brand one.(It isn't sold in my area.)

Few days ago he gave me reall Uguisu ball that he got on his vacation.

The taste is very ordinal.
However, I cannot stop to eat once I eat one ball.

Uh, this is a difficult decision if I buy it online or give up for physical health check next month...



Sunday, March 22, 2009

Head board

I bought my bed when I moved into this room.
At that time I had a lot to buy and couldn't spent money for headboad of the bed.
My friend advised me this bed is better without headboard but I wanted it to read a book before sleep.

Then I bought it few weeks ago.
However, I sleep as soon as I go into bed, no reading book.
In addition, I feel it looked better without headboard...

What do you think?

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Bed is from MUJI.

10yen Manju


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6

Sweets time.
This Omanju, cake with sweet beans inside, is 10 yen each.
It's so cheap but taste good. I bought dozen of them. I tried to eat separate but I couldn't. I ate another 6 omanju after this...
10yen Manju shop

TOKUJIRO

Thursday, March 19, 2009

The history of Blue Note

iconicon

In Japan, this album is a big hit.
This is 70th Anniversary album from Blue Note.
The album are sold only online.

Usually jazz music don't show up in top ranking but this album is very special.
The cost is 1500 yen (15 USD), it's normal price on download product.
However, the album contains 70 tracks.

70!

It's 7.2 hours, or maybe 835.6MB is more clear for computer geek.
Uh? Of course I download it...

NEAL'S YARD REMEDIES


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6

Recently I use this cosme.
It's vegetable origin and organic.

I like this feeling after use.
My skin doesn't change to silk like surface but I feel very confortble.
Maybe because it's natural product.







Neal's yard remedies

Original from London

Recovered, so eat.


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
I was sick for over 2 weeks. And during 2 weeks, I didn't want to drink beer. (So surprizing...) Then this is celebration of my recovery. Kimchee frid rice and sour soup.

AAAAAAnd BEER!!
YEBIS Silk, new product.
You can't imagine how happy I was...

Sick but eat


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Pineapple juice because of sickness.
Pasta with bacon, tomato and Mizuna, Water leaf in Japanese.

Bacon was fried with garlic so smells good.

Breakfast on weekend


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Breakfast eaten at 13:00...

Frid rice and boiled Nanohana with tomato


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Nanohana is vegetable of spring. It's bit bitter and hot.

Just boiled and put sesame dressing.

Curry Rice !


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
As usual...
This is Chicken curry.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Swedish warm warm socks


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
My sister loves shopping and she often gives things which she loves to us.

These socks are also her favourit.
Do you see puff on the edge of socks?
Inside of socks are covered with soft and warm puff and it soooo confi and warm.

I feel like as if I put my foot in the banch of sheep.
Yes, exactly same as print on the socks.

Swedish people do good job...

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Japanese mountain - Karasawa


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
I definitely recommend to visit Kamikochi where you will find beautiful river and fabulous alps mountains.
Walking for 5 hours, you will get Karasawa Kar (Cirque).
On beginning of October, trees changes its color soooo beautifully.

Kamikochi is located in Nagano.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Jiyugaoka Roll-ya


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Mr. & Mrs. S gave me chocolate as thank-you-gift for their fairwell party.
Usually, I eat this kind of sweets or snacks from a plastic bag directly. (I'm lazy enogh...) However, this chocolate was so nice and wrapping was cute. Then I served it on a plate and had it with oolong tea.
Yummy....

Nikujaga & sliced tomato


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Nikujaga is a kind of stew, made with potato, carrot, poke and shirataki.
Shirataki is something like a noodle made by potato.

Soba restaurant


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
I went out for lunch with my friend. This Soba noodle shop is in my hometown but it was my first time to visit.
Soba taste so so, but Tempra with cherry shrinp was not good...

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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Kakiage of Sakura ebi, cherry shrinp and tempra of Tsubaki flower.

Left over


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Left-over-dinner.
I don't care what I eat unless beer with it. Haha.

Saba Miso


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Stewed Saba fish.
It's sooooo salty...
And it is why beer glass is half empty.

Breakfast on weekend


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Sauteed bean sprout & leek.
Shirasu and Nori on hot rice.
Shirasu is a small white fish. Shirasu will be boiled as soon as they arrived at port. Sometimes we eat raw shirasu but it's very limited because it becomes bad easily.

Pancake


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
I made Pan cake with hot sand maker.
Not much difference...

Easy dinner


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Pasta wit spinach and raw ham (It's not raw any more though...)
Tabel wine served in thin glass which my friend gave me as wedding gift.

Well done hot sand


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Burned hotsand with tuna mayonnaisa...
I love yogurt with percimmon but my friends say it's weird...

Breakfast on weekend


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Rice dish with carrot, chicken and Takenoko, bumboo baby. (Not good... less salt..)
I coverd Poke soup with Nori, see weed paper. (Good)
Oolong tea leaves are made in Taiwan.
My friend gave this to me and this smells soooo nice. Luv it.

Nabe


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Nabe with Kimchee and Umeshu, plum riquol.
This should be cooked on the table because Nabe means Hotpot. But I don't have it...

Fujinomiya Yakisoba


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Originally uploaded by Ocha6
Fujinomiya Yakisoba, fried noodle made in Fujinomiya.
Fujinomiya Yakisoba is well known as winner of Grade-B Gourmet competition.

Mochi hot sand

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Dinner

I'm gonna start logging what I cooked or ate.