Japanese Cuisine in Kyoto

Hello there! How have you been so far? I think I haven’t posted anything on my blog for a while, and I apologize for my laziness. You know once we get lazy, it’s hard for us to start again, right?

Today I want to write about Japanese cuisine in Kyoto and the cuisine is called Kyo-ryori in Japanese.

I went to a Japanese fancy restaurant called Tan-kuma (たん熊）with my husband and two of our mutual friends and ate together. We had a lot of fun there while chitchatting.

This is called sesame tofu made from sesames.

Fish soup called sumashi-jiru

 

 

Fresh raw fish called sashimi

 

Main dish

 

My favorite, eel rice! Mmmmm, yummy!

Dessert: green tea ice cream and kinako mochi with red beans

 

I went to Kyoto again with my other friend on a different day, and she and I ate different Japanese cuisines at another fancy restaurant. The restaurant name is Gion Yuyama. ( 祇園ゆやま）

Sesame tofu made from sesames

The restaurant chef. We sat in front of the chef, and we could watch him. It was fascinating.

 

Main dish

 

He is cutting tiny fish bones from a hamo ( a kind of fish which we eat in summer in  Kyoto)

 

Egg plants, okura and oriental melon

 

Rice with shirasu (dried tiny fish), miso soup and some Japanese pickles

 

Dessert: Ice cream, sesame flavored pudding and coffee flavored gelatin with water melon

Both restaurants were really good, and I hardly can choose which was better.

Since we were in Kyoto, I want to introduce summer in Kyoto as well.

The street where we walked was very Kyoto. Each house has some blinds called sudare to block sun shine and keep inside cool.

 

 

 

I think this house is a tea house called ochaya which has geisha and maiko (geisha’s apprentice)  because we can see square wood printed maiko and geisya names above the door.

After that, we went to another place to look around the pottery festival in Kyoto.

Since I went to the festival last year as well, I didn’t take many photos this time. I am sorry for this.

 

 

I bought some pottery for kintsugi techniques Japanese traditional techniques for pottery)  which I am currently involved in.  I will write about kintsugi techniques on my other blog entry soon. You will see what it is then.

 

Thank you so much for visiting my blog again! I will keep posting, stay tuned!!

 

-Yumi

 

 

Getting Bigger!

Hello there! How have you been? We have been suffering from the crazy summer. We had an M6.1 earthquake, crazy rain which caused floods and land slides and killed around 300 people and the HEAT WEAVES! According to our government, the heats is a disaster. So, we have been under the disaster more than one month! Every day is around 38 degree Celsius. Last month ( in July) around 400 people died because of the hearts. I guess we will more 300 people lose this month. Then, we had a typhoon. Another one is heading to Japan right now. I feel like we won a disaster lottery. I hope your weather is not such miserable like ours.

Today, I want to write about food portions in Japan. I usually post fancy restaurants’ photos and you don’t know that our food portions are getting larger.  Big portions are very popular among young people. I think we love adopting American culture, and the food portions are called  めがもり、mega-mori　or deka-mori, でかもりin Japanese. It means big portion, of course. You can see how much they are large.

 

 

I have never tried out mega-mori, but I can guess the portions are close to American ones.

Of course, it’s easy for you to guess what’s going on our people, right? Yes, we are getting bigger too.

He is s very popular Japanese drag queen. He is called Matsuko (Actually, Matuko is a female name in Japanese.)

Her name is Naomi Watanabe and she is also very popular TV person. She is a comedienne and actress. She is good at impersonating Beyonce! ( She doesn’t sing, though)

 

A couple of days ago, my husband and I went to a steak restaurant, and we saw lots of over weight people there. This made us think we had to exercise after we ate the dinner, lol.  My husband is big ( He is over weight, but he has lots of masculines and that’s why.) , but he looked normal then to me, lol.

I think we will add more over weight people and over weight won’t be a big issue in our society soon.

 

Food Art in Japan

Hello there. How are you doing?

I wanted to write about my previous place where my family and I had spent for seven years, but I don’t have enough time to blog this time. I have to start over my last tea set for my painting school. So, I changed my mind. When I have enough time for blogging, I will write about the place. I am sorry for this. In stead of this, today I want to show you so-called food art. I took these pictures when I ate dinner with my hubby, family or parents at some French restaurants. In Japan French cuisines are expensive. I like dressing up and going out with my hubby or family there. I hope you enjoy the photos.

La Baie, The Ritz-Carlton hotel  This restaurant have been given one star from the Michelin Guide.

https://www.ritz-carlton.co.jp/restaurant/labaie/

The second picture is some bread. I was inspired by the way they served them. We can keep bread warm longer in the box.

Some salt with two different butter. I really loved the butter in the right side.

This is the Japanese portion, lol!!!!  Now you know why we don’t have BIG people here.

Don’t you think this looks like art? I think both Japanese food and French food are very visual food.

 

 

This crepe had a bit alcohol, brandy and I couldn’t eat it. ( I am weak at alcohol. My hubby enjoyed eating it.)

They served us more deserts. Oh, I loved their service!

On the other day, my family and my parents went to the other French restaurant, Restaurant Varier. http://www.restaurant-varier.com/menu/index.html

Well, Japanese portion again, lol

This dish is very artistic!

 

The color red and the color green, the contrast is very pretty!

 

 

My favorite, Foie gras with stake, of course, Japanese portion, lol

 

This plate is also very artistic.

 

Did you find some art in Japanese French cuisines? I am wondering which one is more artistic, real French food in France or Japanese French food in Japan? I would love to try out real French food in France in person some time!

Thank you for stopping by my blog. See you around in two weeks!

-Yumi x

 

 

 

 

Castella, the Oldest Japanese Cake

Hello there! How did your new year start? Have you set up some goals to achieve for this year? What are your new year’s resolutions?

I have set up some goals that I really want to achieve and made some new year resolutions. I will try my best to reach my goals this year as well, and I will see the result at the end of this year.

Today I want to introduce Japanese oldest cakes to you. I hope this blog entry is interesting for you who are interested in Japanese culture or history.

The cake is called “castella”.   It is around 400 years old. You can read the history here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castella   In the 17 century, the Edo period my country had closed our country from other countries to protect ourselves. It had been keeping in 300 years. During the time we created our own unique culture. Castella was born in the 17 century. Even though, we didn’t open our country to others, we had exchanged stuff with Portugal and Holland.  They brought us guns, Christianity, Western culture like western medicines, western science and so on. Castella was introduced by Portuguese. We had a large port in Nagasaki, the Kusyu erea. They came to the port with Castella. They started living with Japanese people in the area. Some Japanese people learned how to make Castella from them. Since then, Castella is very popular among all aged Japanese people. I love the cake as well.

Castella texture is different from Western cakes. They are very soft and mild.

 

I found a very interesting advertizement paper with the Castella box. Since I took some photos of it, I want to share them with you.

This seems to be very old advertizement of Castella. Since some Japanese characters are very old, I can’t read some words even though I can guess the meaning.

You can see a Castella factory in the advertizement.

 

You can see when the Castella factory opened. It says “since 1624”. Actually, the factory name is “Fukusaya” and it’s in Nagasaki prefecture. I think the Castella factory is the oldest one in Japan, and I really love the castella from the factory. I think the shop’s one is the best!

They have an English HP! http://www.fukusaya.co.jp/global/en/index.html According to the HP, the current shop owner is 16th generation from the first one. I am very amazed! The factory also have very long history with their Castella!!!

When you come to Japan, get some Castella at an airport! You will love them!

See you around in two weeks again!

Have a lovely week, everyone!

-Yumi x

 

-Yumi

Eel Foods

Hello there! How have you been? We are in the midvv summer, and every day is so hot and humid. To cheer ourselves up, we eat eels in summer. Well, it means Japanese summer is too tough, and many people lose their appetite. It’s easy for us to get sick. To stay healthy, we eat eels.

A couple of days ago, my family and my parents went to the biggest eel restaurant in my hometown. We ate eels until we got stuffed, lol. I think my family, my parents and I can stay healthy during this summer thanks to the eels.

Since the restaurant has a beautiful garden, I took some photos with some foods. I think eel foods are very fascinating for you to see because I don’t see eel foods so often out of Japan. I hope this blog entry is interesting for you to know about our food culture. As I repeat mentioning, our food culture depends on the seasons a lot. Eels are definitely summer food for us.

appetizer with some cherry blossom tea

grilled ell with koi fish sasimi

I love eating koi fish sasimi with sour miso sauce. It’s so yummy.

Umaki, egg omelet with grilled eel

Umaki is my favorite too!!

 

Koikoku, miso soup with koi fish

Koikoku is my favorite too. It’s sweeter than regular and has much richer flavor than the regular one. We have another good restaurant for Koikoku close to my hubby’s parents’ house. When I get there, I will introduce the foods there.

Koi-no-amani

It might be gross for you, but this is another one of my favorite. The fish is koi with sweet tasting soy sauce flavor. It’s hard for people to get Koi fish from a market for the amani, but I cook other fish with amani. The only thing that I don’t like is the fish part, though. My hubby loves amani with fish eggs.

Unadon ( Una-jyu)  with some Japanese pickles

This is my best favorite food! I love grilled unagi with some rice!

 

Yuzu flavor ice cream. Yuzu is a citrous fruit.

On this day my dad found a dragonfly. According to him, the dragonfly was a rare sort. I forgot the name, but I took some pics with him. He seemed to be very happy with good foods and the rare dragonfly.

The restaurant has a koi pound.  I guess we ate some koi fish from the pond, the fresh ones, lol.  Poor fish……

I hope you enjoyed the blog entry!

 

See you in two weeks again!!

-Yumi x

 

Desserts for Summer in Japan

Hello there!

How are you spending your weekend? The day before yesterday was the Tanabata in Japan even though my family and I didn’t celebrate it. It was first time for the Tanabata festival not to be a rainy day for years. So, I guess the mystical couple in the sky enjoyed having their romantic time together.　You ca learn about mystical couple: http://www.japan-suite.com/blog/2014/7/6/tanabata-story-of-two-star-crossed-loversf

Today I want to introduce our summer desserts to you. In summer you can see these in supermarkets a lot. We love eating cold stuff in summer. Ice cream gets more popular in summer too, but we still love our old-fashioned sweets like these. We keep these desserts in our refrigerator to keep them cool. When we eat them, we can enjoy the cool temperature and the sweet flavor together. Most of them are like jellies, but these sweets are made from vegetable gelatin. This part is different from jellies. ( Jellies are made from animal gelatin.)

My favorite sweet in summer is Warabimochi. I really love Kuromitsu ( the black syrup made from brown sugar) and that’s the reason. It’s so tasty to eat the cold Warabimochi with Kuromitsu.

 

My other favorite is Mizsuyoukan.

My previous place where we lived had a popular Mizuyoukan factory three doors down from our house. We loved buying the Mizuyoukan there. I really miss it. Mizsuyoukan is made from some red beans.

We have more sweets for summer.

Anmistu

I don’t like this one, but some people like my hubby loves this, called Kuzsukiri. That’s because it tastes sour. I prefer sweet flavor.

So, which one do you want to taste first? I hope this summer won’t be extremely muggy, and I can enjoy the season.

Have a lovely weekend! See you around next weekend here again!

-Yumi

 

 

Get Some Potato-chips!

Hi there! How are you doing today?

I am busy for preparing for my studying abroad in the States. I will go back to the States next week.

I want to get some potato-chips in the States when I get there this time.  I am not a huge fan of chips, but there is a reason.

Last year four big typhoons attacked Hokkaido where is the main place for potatoes. We depends on the island to grow potatoes. The area got huge damage and we are lack of potatoes for potato-chips. Then,  several main potato-chips companies made a decision that they would stop making different flavored potato-chips. We still have salty flavor and probably BBQ flavor, but that’s all.

We have no idea when we can get various flavored potato-chips again. I miss soy sauce ones, wasabi flavored ones, fish eggs called mentaiko flavored ones or plum pickles called umeboshi flavored ones or so on……..

Now, the price of potato-chips is getting higher, especially the hard ones for us to get. I saw 5 dollars for one small package, and it’s five times higher! People compete to get potato-chips before they all are gone.

I guess when we want to get some potato-chips, we have to go to Costco to get American chips. Then, we will appreciate that we still can get some chips there!!

You can read an article about our chips here: https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/japan-has-been-hit-by-a-massive-potato-chip-shortage?utm_campaign=trendsus&utm_source=munchiesfbus

I hope I can write one more blog entry before going back to the States!

Have a lovely week, everybody!

-Yumi

Chinese Cuisine in Japan

Hello there! How have you been?

I am sorry for the delay. I wanted to update my blog soon, but I was busy for my family thing. Since I have some spare time, I want to update my blog today.

Today’s entry is about Chinese cuisine in Japan. I know in the States, people don’t think Chinese foods are “cuisine”. In Japan we have both cheap foods and expensive foods in Chinese foods. I want to show the expensive one today.

A couple of weeks ago, my family and I celebrated my husband’s parents’ wedding anniversary with them. My husband took us to a fancy Chinese restaurant. I thought it might be interesting for people who never seen Chinese fancy foods in Japan. I hope you enjoy the food.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be honest with you, I am not a big fan of the restaurant. When we lived in Wakayama prefecture, we used to going to our favorite Chinese restaurant. The foods are much better, but we don’t have the restaurant anymore, and we don’t live in Wakayama either.

I like Chinese foods both in Japan and America.

Do you have Chinese cuisines in your country?

Sakura (Cherry blossoms )started blooming! My next blog entry will be about the cherry blossoms!

Have lovely weekdays! See you soon here!!!

-Yumi

 

Taco Rice

Hello there!

How have you been? It’s already March! I am amazed how time goes by so fast!

Today, I want to write about our local food in Okinawa, Japan. I think this blog entry might be interesting for people who like Mexican foods. It’s Taco Rice!!

I made this plate a couple of days ago because my hubby likes the taco rice. It’s very simple. The ingredients are same as regular Tacos, but instead of using Taco Shells,  we use Japanese sticky rice. We put all these ingredients on the rice. That’s it!! It’s very simple and yummy!

I live in a main land in Japan, and Taco rice isn’t popular here. Even Mexican foods are not popular either. However, we have Costco, and we can get Salsa Sauce and  Taco Shells there.

I think we are not good at adopting foreign food culture so much, but this one is an good example. If you are interested in Taco Rice, try it out because it’s not difficult to make at all.

Have a lovely week!

-Yumi

 

Ramen

Hello there! How have you been?

Today I want to write about Ramen because I have heard Ramen is getting popular in the world. Have you had Ramen before? Ramen is noodle with soup, and it’s very popular in Japan. We have lots of Ramen shops everywhere.

My hubby and I went to a Ramen shop close to our house last week.

The shop is new and he wanted to go there to try the ramen there. We ordered different flavored ramen to taste. I preferred mine, and he preferred his. His ramen was too rich for me. I prefer plan flavor to rich one in ramen.

I ordered this one. The flavor is based on salt with fish soup.

Usually, Japanese ramen restaurants’ menu has pictures. I don’t like menus in America or Mexico because they don’t have pictures like ours! I can read English, but if I have no idea about the food names, how can I order?! In Mexico, since I can’t read Spanish, I always had some troubles to choose foods. I always had to ask my friends.

My hubby’s order

My order

 

we shared the fried chicken and gyoza.

I am very curious. What does your country’s ramen look like? Does it look like ours?

I will be off for a couple of weeks in this blog and my other blog. I will study abroad in Italy for two weeks and can’t update my blogs. After I return to Japan, I will update my art blog about my adventures in Italy!

 

See you at the end of this year, every one!

 

-Yumi