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

 

 

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

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

 

 

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

 

Halloween in Japan

Hi there! How have you been?

I can’t believe that we have only two months left this year!! I am so surprised that time flies so fast!

Last week, I know we celebrated Halloween in the Western world. Well, me personally, I have never gone trick or treating or celebrated it in my entire life. When I was a kid, Halloween was not popular at all. However, it is getting more popular recently, and I want to share how we celebrate it.

I have a 10 year-old niece, and she shared a very interesting story with me. She told me that she does trick or treat in her neighborhood. Her neighborhoods has a Halloween event every year in October. She can stop by to trick or treat at elderly people’s houses which have a maple leaf mark on their house doors. The house owners (they are elderly people) give some candies when kids come around. It’s an event both for elderly people and kids to communicate with each other. When I heard the story, I thought it’s a great idea because usually elderly people don’t get so many chances to talk to kids besides their grandchildren. Of course, my niece told me that they wear a Halloween costume.

After hearing the story, I paid a little bit more attention. On the Halloween day, I found a cute pumpkin pie which was wrapped by a cute Halloween package at a grocery store .

Halloween is apparently getting much more popular in one decade.

My daughter loves going to Universal Studios in Osaka during the Halloween season. She loves wearing creepy make-up and goes there with her friends.  Older people are still not interested in Halloween, but young people are enjoying it.

I think in a couple of years, Halloween will become a much bigger event in Japan and we might be able to see many people from young to old wearing a costume everywhere, lol.

I hope you had a fun time on this Halloween!

See you next weekend here again!

-Yumi

Japanese Food

Hi there!

In Japan we are in the middle of the rainy season, and I hate the season because it’s really moggy. After the season, we will have a really humid and hot summer season. Aw, they are really gloomy seasons for me.  I hope you have a good time.

I’ve heard Japanese food is getting more popular because of Anime and Manga. People who love Anime and Manga have been seeing a lot of Japanese foods through them,  and they started getting more interested in our foods. Is it true? If so, it’s very interesting for me. I’m very curious when people from overseas hear about Japanese foods, what kind of foods they imagine. While showing my experiences, I want to show real Japanese foods in Japan.

I’ve experienced to eat so-called Japanese food at a restaurant in the States. My friend, Fresia from Bolivia invited me to the restaurant while we were traveling together.

Japanese Restaurant in New Orleans

 

It’s completely different from our foods in Japan. Even though it’s different, it was really good. I loved the American Japanese food, called Teppan-Yaki.

Japanese Restaurant in New Orleans

At the restaurant they served us a cup of soup, but it was mix of Chinese and Japanese. The spoon is Chinese. We don’t eat Japanese soup with the Chinese spoon.

Japanese Restaurant in New Orleans

 

When we go to Teppan-Yaki Japanese restaurant, we can enjoy seeing such the performance that we can’t see in Japan. The chef was from Thailand, and we enjoyed chatting when I told him I’ve been there last year.

Japanese Restaurant in New Orleans

 

Japanese Restaurant in New Orleans

 

Japanese Restaurant in New Orleans

 

Japanese Restaurant in New Orleans

 

While looking at the chef’s performance, we enjoyed eating. I ordered seafoods, and I ate grilled veggies, fried rice, salad, soup and grilled seafoods. All of them were very tasty.  The only think that they disappointed me was that they were using really cheap dishes for the foods. In Japanese foods, dishes are a very important part for us because we enjoy the foods themselves while looking at the decoration on really pretty dishes.

I also ate Japanese food in Canada last month. The chef was from Korea, and they also used very cheap dishes.

Here are real Japanese foods we are used to.

 

Japanese Foods

 

Japanese Foods

 

Japanese Foods

 

Japanese Foods

 

Japanese Foods

 

Japanese Foods

 

Japanese Foods

 

Japanese Foods

 

Japanese Foods

 

Japanese Foods

 

Japanese Foods

 

Japanese Foods

 

All foods belong to one person. The potion is small .

When you looked at the photos of real Japanese foods, what did you think? Please compare the American Japanese foods.

I think the real Japanese foods seem to be more delicious for you because we concern about decoration, dishes, colors and which season we eat. My family and I went to the Japanese restaurant in this rainy season. So, they served us some cold foods. You can see some ice cubes in some photos, and they are cold foods. Eating cold foods in this season is so good because we can make our body cooler.

I think Japanese foods are almost art because we can enjoy looking at them before eating. They are very colorful, and we use expensive dishes for the good foods.

Do you know that our Japanese foods have been registered as a World Heritage Site? I’m very proud of it.

I hope you can understand about Japanese foods in Japan via my blog post.

 

Valentine’s Day in Japan

How will you spend Valentine’s Day? I would like to write about  Japanese Valentine’s Day today. Do you know we have two Valentine’s Days? One is called ” Valentine’s Day” , and it is the 14th of February, and the other is called ” White Day” , and it is the 14th of March.

Our Valentine’s Day is for girls. Many girls, especially young girls are looking forward to the day because it is a good chance for them to tell someone in mind that they love the person. They usually prepare homemade chocolates, cookies, cakes, or handmade knits. Since my daughter love baking, she always bakes something for her male friends. ( I am not sure if she might have a boyfriend. However, she bakes some chocolate cakes every year for her father, grandfathers and someone else.)
When I was young, I loved knitting some sweaters for my boyfriend. I am wondering if my ex-boyfriends still have kept them, lol.

On the other hand, girls also prepare some chocolates for their colleagues and bosses. It is called “Giri-Choco” in Japanese. In this case the chocolates mean they are obligation chocolate without true love. It is just a diplomatic way in a social situation.

After girls give some chocolates or another things to their boyfriends, male friends, colleagues and bosses, girls expect to receive luxury stuff from them. That is our second Valentine’s Day, ”  White Day”. The day is for males. Of course, after males receive some gifts from their girlfriends, female friends and colleagues, they have to return some gifts that are their female friends’ favorite.
My daughter  receives some sweets with cards from her male friends every year.

If the Days are weekends, most of the couples spend together to see a movie, enjoy dinner and go to some romantic places.

Christmas in Japan

Today I discussed Christmas stuff with my Texan friend. Since the content was very interesting, I would love to introduce Japanese people’s Christmas here.
Of course how to spend depends on individual.

When I was a child, of course I also believed in Santa Claus. Our Santa Claus is wearing “Kimono” and hanging a “sword”, and his haircut is “samurai” style. Naaaaaaaah, of course NOT!!!
Our Santa Claus is also a western guy who is choppy and plumply. He is wearing red costume like western people think. He also has white long beard and mustache. He is quite same as western culture. However, one different thing is that he can speak Japanese. On TV or other mass medias he speaks Japanese fluently. When western people see it, they might think that it is hilarious.

I do not know each Japanese house serves some sweets and some tea, but in my house my mother prepared something sweet and to drink for Santa Claus. I guess since she prefers Japanese snacks to western snacks, she always served Japanese snacks called “senbei” and two cups of Japanese green tea for him in the kitchen table. When I was young, I did not know why she prepared two cups, but after several years  I knew the reason.

Meanwhile, we decorate Christmas fake tree inside. Compared to America, our tree size is very compact because our houses are smaller. When I was a child, I had not seen big Christmas lights so many times. However, right now the Christmas light is very common. I think the blue LED ( Light Emitting Diode) is discovered by a Japanese company. After the blue LED was produced, we can enjoy various colors LED here and there.

On Christmas day we buy a whole Christmas cake and cut it off. And then we eat a piece of Christmas cake. I think that it is  big different from America. Our cake has various types. However, most of them are decorated by lots of white whip cream or chocolate whip cream and strawberries. That is a common Christmas cake.

Since I was born in the western region, our parents house has no chimney. So, my mother told my sister and me that we had to keep opening our bathroom’s window for Santa Claus because we have no chimney. I believed that in my regions Santa Claus came into our house from the bathroom’s window. I never doubted how such a big guy came from the small window.

After I turned 16 years old and started to go out with my boyfriend, I tended not to spend Christmas with my family. I tended to go out with my boyfriend to see movies. I think in Japan when couples have young children, they spend Christmas with their children. However, after their children grow up, they do not spend Christmas together. Our Christmas are much for couples and boyfriends or girlfriends rather than for families.
I think that Christmas is one of the most important events for couples and lovers.

Christmas gift is also most important part in our Christmas. In young couples and lovers, they enjoy exchanging gifts. Parents and grandparents give gifts to their children and grandchildren. In my case I always give my love to my husband, and I receive kind of expensive stuff from him every year.

I’m curious about your country’s Christmas. So, after you read my blog entry, please leave a comment. I’m looking forward to reading lots of interesting stories.

Japanese Christmas cake

 

Japanese  senbei

Japanese Sweets in Spring

Hi, there! Today I want to introduce you to our sweets. Japanese sweets are called as wagashi（和菓子) in Japanese. The figures look very pretty. You can enjoy eating wagashi while you also enjoy looking at them.

Today I want to introduce spring wagashi. Since we have four seasons, we have seasonal sweets for each season. In spring, we eat dumplings. We call such type of dumplings hanamidango（花見団子). When I was a kid, I loved the dumplings. It’s very soft and sweet. The texture looks like mochi(もち). Hanamidango has three colored dumplings; pink white and green. I think that when people enjoy viewing cherry blossoms, they eat the dumplings. However, I’ve never eaten them while viewing cherry blossoms.

 

 

 

Hanami dango

 We also eat mochi called sakura mochi(さくらもち）and kashiwa mochi（かしわもち). Sakura mochi is wrapped with a cherry leaf. The leaf is very salty, and you can eat it with the mochi. When you eat it, you can enjoy both salty and sweet flavor at the same time. In my case, I don’t like eating a leaf, so I always peel it off before I eat sakura mochi.

Sakura mochi is very interesting sweet because it has varieties. It has two type of sakura mochi: in western area and eastern area it has differences. In western it is covered with sticky stuff. On the other hand, in eastern it is covered with dry stuff.
However, both ingredients are same.
Before I transferred to eastern area, I didn’t notice that. Since I was born and grew up in western area, I prefer western version to eastern version.

 

                  

Western version sakura mochi                                            Eastern version sakura mochi                                           

Kashiwa mochi is eaten on 5th of May. The day is children day in Japan. We celebrate the day for children. I want to write about the day next time. Kashiwa mochi has various bean jam. Basically although it is made from red beans, it also has miso(みそ) flavor jam. As my mother loves miso flavor, when I was young, she always bought it. I really don’t like the flavor because I don’t like sweet miso. It’s yuk!!! The children day is for boys’ event, but all of us eat kashiwa mochi and celebrate the day.

                   

Kashiwa mochi                                Chimaki